bodkin
Americannoun
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a small, pointed instrument for making holes in cloth, leather, etc.
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a long pinshaped instrument used by women to fasten up the hair.
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a blunt, needlelike instrument for drawing tape, cord, etc., through a loop, hem, or the like.
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Obsolete. a small dagger; stiletto.
noun
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a blunt large-eyed needle used esp for drawing tape through openwork
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archaic a dagger
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printing a pointed steel tool used for extracting characters when correcting metal type
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archaic a long ornamental hairpin
Etymology
Origin of bodkin
1350–1400; Middle English badeken, bo ( i ) dekyn, of uncertain origin
Explanation
Watch out! The robber has a bodkin! A bodkin is a short knife with a thin blade. This sweet little word isn’t so sweet — it’s a dagger with a thin blade that’s used as a weapon. It is little though, and easy to hide in a cape. Bodkins are mentioned throughout Shakespeare's plays. For example, Hamlet mentioned a "bare bodkin" in his "to be or not to be" soliloquy. Bodkin is also a word for other little sharp things, like a kind of hemming needle or hair pin, but either way, you're most likely to find one in a museum.
Vocabulary lists containing bodkin
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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A Storm of Swords
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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.
From Washington Post • Sep. 21, 2016
To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin/ That makes calamity of so long life;/ For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane .
From Time Magazine Archive
"I expect all the ladies to know what a bodkin is," says Rowse in the general introduction to his edition.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, fardels is replaced, but the word bodkin remains.
From Time Magazine Archive
That a young baggage, who scarce knows her bobbins from a bodkin, should presume to put in her oar, and censure the histories of the knights-errant!
From The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
