darning egg

American

noun

a smooth, egg-shaped piece of wood, ivory, marble, jade, or the like, for holding under a hole or tear to serve as a backing while darning.

darning egg British

noun

a rounded piece of wood or plastic used in darning to support the fabric around the hole

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of darning egg

First recorded in 1895–1900

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.

Lee looked up from his darning egg.

From Literature

Her mother moved her chair to follow it and dropped her darning egg, which the girl handed to her.

From Project Gutenberg

Which brings everyone to Mikhail Gorbachev, who is nearly as bald as a darning egg, and to the upstart Boris Yeltsin, whose mane of graying locks ruffles conspicuously these days in the winds of change.

From Time Magazine Archive

He should have realized that the corsage is as dead as the darning egg.

From Time Magazine Archive

In Manorville, L.I., static on a party line was eliminated when telephone company investigators persuaded a woman to stop using her receiver as a darning egg.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023