bodkin

[bod-kin]

noun

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

2. a long pinshaped instrument used by women to fasten up the hair.

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

4. Obsolete.,  a small dagger; stiletto.

bodkin

/ ˈbɒdkɪn /

noun

1. a blunt large-eyed needle used esp for drawing tape through openwork

2. archaic,  a dagger

3. printing a pointed steel tool used for extracting characters when correcting metal type

4. archaic,  a long ornamental hairpin

Word History and Origins

Origin of bodkin¹

1350–1400; Middle English badeken, bo ( i ) dekyn, of uncertain origin

Word History and Origins

Origin of bodkin¹

C14: probably of Celtic origin; compare Gaelic biodag dagger

Example Sentences

Punishment for cursing or disparaging a clergyman was having a bodkin — a large needle — driven through the tongue.

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In fact, that “serpent of old Nile” — Shakespeare’s phrase — probably used Egyptian cobra venom, possibly secreted in a hollow bodkin that she carried wound in her hair.

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"Whom would fardels bear under such a weary and long life.... when he could his quietus make with a bare bodkin?"

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However, we atheists should not relent, but press our advantage, and remain ready at all times to slip the bodkin of reason into the still-beating heart of faith and twist it vigorously.

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We are told by Fathers, that Herodias stabbed the head with a bodkin when she got it into her hand, and here are the marks of such an operation visible.

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Related Words

• bayonet 
• blade 
• sword