needlepoint
Americannoun
adjective
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done or executed in needlepoint.
a needlepoint cushion.
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noting a lace needlepoint lace in which a needle works out the design upon parchment or paper.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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embroidery done on canvas with the same stitch throughout so as to resemble tapestry
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another name for point lace
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of needlepoint
Explanation
Needlepoint is a traditional art form that's done with thread on thick fabric. If your grandmother has a pillow with "Home Sweet Home" stitched on it, it's probably a work of needlepoint. When you do needlepoint, you use various colors of a thick thread or an even thicker yarn, stitching it through a stiff material with an open, grid-like weave. Using a pattern or your own design, your needlepoint creation might, for example, be a portrait of a cat you can on the wall or make into a pillow. Another type of needlepoint is lace that's made with a needle — this is the earlier meaning of the word, from the mid-1800s.
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.
Diane Briones Williams’s textiles at Official Welcome inject international flair into Western art history by rendering traditional scenes—landscapes, still lifes and genre painings—in needlepoint, then adding elements that touch on the artist’s Filipino heritage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Her needlepoint pillow said, “Nouveau is better than not Riche at all.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
During an art residency last year in a former castle in the Umbrian countryside, the textile artist Liz Collins sat in her temporary studio stitching a needlepoint.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2024
She gave the actor a “beautiful needlepoint pillow” and they’ve spoken over the phone about their favorite cop shows.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
The hand-tinted photographs in the hallway, the needlepoint pillows on the sofa, the ever-changing grocery list stuck to the refrigerator under a magnet in the shape of a Boston terrier.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
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.
