kick against the pricks

To resist, protest, or fight against those in positions of authority. Our generation had to live through the Thatcher era—we were defined by kicking against the pricks!

See also: kick, prick

kick against the pricks

mainly BRITISH, LITERARY, OLD-FASHIONED

If you kick against the pricks, you show your opposition to people in authority. He was just an awkward young man kicking against the pricks. Note: This expression occurs in the Bible (Acts 9:5). It refers to cattle kicking out when people try to drive them by jabbing them with sticks.

See also: kick, prick

kick against the pricks

hurt yourself by persisting in useless resistance or protest.

In the Bible, on the road to Damascus Saul heard the words: ‘It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks’ (Acts 9:5). The image is that of an ox or other beast of burden fruitlessly kicking out when it is pricked by a goad or spur.

See also: kick, prick

ˌkick against the ˈpricks

harm yourself by protesting when it is useless to do so: People in prison learn very quickly not to kick against the pricks. If they complain, the prison officers make their lives very difficult.This idiom comes from the Bible and refers to the fact that an animal such as an ox may kick when it is pricked (= pushed with a stick) to make it move, but will still have to move.

See also: kick, prick

References in periodicals archive ?

In his new autobiography, A Kick Against the Pricks (the title refers to a Bible passage), the James Joyce scholar writes intimately about his life and the scandals that Norris says haven't allowed him a complete night's sleep ever since.

David Norris against the pricks: in a new autobiography the politician and scholar talks about how homophobia scuttled his chance to be Ireland's president

Because THEN there'll be something to write about, then there'll be an occasion to kick against the pricks.

TAKE THAT AND TORY PARTY; BARLOW'S SINGING THE BLUES

When God tells Saul (Acts 26), "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks," he is borrowing a verse from Euripides (Bacchae 795).