prise

Fowlerは戦場で負傷しました。
I lay still and heard nothing but my own pain beating like a monstrous heart and held my breath and prayed to the God I didn't believe in, 'Let me die or faint'; and then I suppose I fainted and was aware of nothing until I dreamed that my eyelids had frozen together and someone was inserting a chisel to prise them apart, and I wanted to warn them not to damage the eyeballs beneath but couldn't and the chisel bit through and a torch was shining on my face.
"prise" は知らない単語ですが、凍りついたような瞼をノミで "prise them apart" とあるので、こじ開けるような意味があると推測できますが、辞書で確認します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to use force to lift something off something else, for example by pressing a tool against a fixed point; to separate things using force: I managed to prise the lid off the tin of paint.
・Collins Dictionary: to force open by levering: It took him six weeks, working two or three hours a day, to prise the drawers open.
"prise" は英国のスペルで、米国では "prize" との説明がありました。 それで以前（6/26/2010）"prize out" を採り上げたのを思い出しました。