bodkin

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bod·kin

(bŏd′kĭn)

1. A small, sharply pointed instrument for making holes in fabric or leather.

2. A blunt needle for pulling tape or ribbon through a series of loops or a hem.

3. A long hairpin, usually with an ornamental head.

4. Printing An awl or pick for extracting letters from set type.

5. A dagger or stiletto.

[Middle English boidekin, of unknown origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bodkin

(ˈbɒdkɪn)

1. (Knitting & Sewing) a blunt large-eyed needle used esp for drawing tape through openwork

2. (Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) archaic a dagger

3. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) printing a pointed steel tool used for extracting characters when correcting metal type

4. (Clothing & Fashion) archaic a long ornamental hairpin

[C14: probably of Celtic origin; compare Gaelic biodag dagger]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bod•kin

(ˈbɒd kɪn)

n.

1. a small, pointed instrument for making holes in cloth, leather, etc.

2. a blunt, needlelike instrument for drawing tape, cord, etc., through a loop, hem, or the like.

3. a long pin used by women to fasten up the hair.

4. Obs. a small dagger; stiletto.

[1350–1400; Middle English badeken, bo(i)dekyn, of uncertain orig.]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	bodkin - a dagger with a slender blade poniard dagger, sticker - a short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing
	2.	bodkin - formerly a long hairpin; usually with an ornamental head hairpin - a double pronged pin used to hold women's hair in place
	3.	bodkin - a small sharp-pointed tool for punching holes in leather or fabric hand tool - a tool used with workers' hands
	4.	bodkin - a blunt needle for threading ribbon through loops threader hand tool - a tool used with workers' hands

Translations

spillone

bodkin

[ˈbɒdkɪn] N

1. (Sew) → aguja f de jareta

2. (Typ) → punzón m

3. (archaic) (= for hair) → espadilla f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bodkin

(Sew) → Durchziehnadel f

(Hist: = hairpin) → lange Haarnadel; (obs, = dagger) → Dolch m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

A toilet is described with the solemnity of an altar raised to the goddess of vanity, and the history of a silver bodkin is given with all the pomp of heraldry.

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Still my husband, cap in hand, persisted in trying to accompany the alcalde, and seeing this my lady, filled with rage and vexation, pulled out a big pin, or, I rather think, a bodkin, out of her needle-case and drove it into his back with such force that my husband gave a loud yell, and writhing fell to the ground with his lady.

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"Let us have some fresh blood," he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette.

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"Well, the first question, you know, is why a man should kill another with a clumsy sabre at all when a man can kill with a bodkin?"

"A man cannot behead with a bodkin," said Brown calmly, "and for this murder beheading was absolutely necessary."

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I shall be shut up with the tire-women else, and have a week of spindle and bodkin, when I would fain be galloping Troubadour up Wilverley Walk, or loosing little Roland at the Vinney Ridge herons."

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Osborne sitting bodkin opposite, between Captain Dobbin and Amelia.

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was there no poniard no knife no bodkin! Well was it for thee, since thou didst prize such an existence, that the secrets of a Norman castle are like those of the grave.

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Long-Beard laughed, too, the five-inch bodkin of bone, thrust midway through the cartilage of his nose, leaping and dancing and adding to his ferocious appearance.

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He sat down cross-legged on the floor among his papers, strung them together with a bodkin and a piece of string--revised them, wrote all the titles and honours by which he was personally distinguished at the head of the first page, and then read the manuscript to me with loud theatrical emphasis and profuse theatrical gesticulation.

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Out of the unknown, from the somewhere and something else, too unconditional for him to know any of the conditions, instantly they appeared, full-statured, walking about Meringe Plantation with loin-cloths about their middles and bone bodkins through their noses, and being put to work by Mister Haggin, Derby, and Bob.

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Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper--foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey- brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India- rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands--glass and leaden--pen-knives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention, ever since he was out of his time and went into partnership with Peffer.