devil's darning needle
Americannoun
noun
Regionalisms
See dragonfly.
Etymology
Origin of devil's darning needle
First recorded in 1800–10
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.
Yankees in some parts of New England call it a devil's darning needle, while some Southern Coast people go for mosquito hawk, and the Pennsylvania-Dutch merely turn the Old Country name for it into English: snake waiter.
From Time Magazine Archive
The strain was between the Devil's Darning Needle and our boat, the Watersprite, which was making capital play, for although we had not the bottom of the topmen, yet we had more blood, so to speak, and we had already beaten them, in their last gig, all to sticks.
From Project Gutenberg
Mother, how does the devil's darning needle sleep?
From Project Gutenberg
We soon distanced the cumbrous looking Don, and the strain was between the Devil's Darning Needle and our boat the Watersprite, which was making capital play, for although we had not the bottom of the topmen, yet we had more blood, so to speak, and we had already beaten them, in their last gig, all to sticks.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
