Kick against the pricks
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Resist authority or unavoidable pressure in a way that only hurts oneself. Potentially distracting today because prick has acquired other senses. The goads variant is clearer. Regional use: Biblical English; now chiefly literary or deliberately archaic.
Origin
Acts 26:14 applies an older Greek agricultural proverb to Saul: an animal that kicks at the pointed goad driving it only wounds itself. The Wycliffe Bible renders the line with kick against the prick in the singular. The familiar plural pricks appears in later English Bibles, including the King James Version. Prick here is the historical noun for a sharp goad; its modern vulgar associations are unrelated to the origin.
Research Sources
Variants
- Kick against the goads
Usage Examples
- Refusing every safety check is merely kicking against the pricks.
- She stopped kicking against the pricks and completed the required training.
- The old rule may be tiresome, but fighting it this way is just kicking against the pricks.