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
Even on Miss Mansfield, I can't imagine anything less interesting than a "bare bodkin."
From Time Magazine Archive
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
In the "To be or not to be" soliloquy, fardels is replaced, but the word bodkin remains.
From Time Magazine Archive
With a bare bodkin who shall fardels carry?
From My Lords of Strogue Vol. III, (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield
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.
