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
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 between was supposed to be little more than a bare bodkin.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her little slender fingers were busy mending rents in gaudy gowns, sewing beads on high collars, and curling feathers with a large bodkin.
From Her Season in Bath A Story of Bygone Days by Marshall, Emma
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.
