darning needle
Americannoun
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a long needle with a long eye used in darning.
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Chiefly Northern and Western U.S. a dragonfly.
noun
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a long needle with a large eye used for darning
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a dialect name for a dragonfly
Regionalisms
See dragonfly.
Etymology
Origin of darning needle
First recorded in 1755–65
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.
Flesh & Blood President Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers finally yielded his mother-in-law's missing darning needle.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Henner and George Landis were not antique dealers, never sold so much as a darning needle.
From Time Magazine Archive
He looked, and there gleaming up at him like a reptilian eye glittered in his incision the end of a steel darning needle.
From Time Magazine Archive
She had made it herself, on the head of a darning needle which had a broken eye, so it couldn’t be used as a needle any more.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mrs. Hickock rethreaded her darning needle; her husband rocked his rocker and sucked on an unlit pipe.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
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.
