01 n. A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, -- used in sewing.
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1.
A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, -- used in sewing.
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3.
A slender rod or wire used in knitting; a knitting needle; also, a hooked instrument which carries the thread or twine, and by means of which knots or loops are formed in the process of netting, knitting, or crocheting.
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5.
Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc.
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6.
A hypodermic needle; a syringe fitted with a hypodermic needle, used for injecting fluids into the body.[Informal]
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7.
An injection of medicine from a hypodermic needle; a shot.
Phrases & compounds
Dipping needle —
See under Dipping.
Needle bar —
the reciprocating bar to which the needle of a sewing machine is attached.
Needle beam —
in shoring, the horizontal cross timber which goes through the wall or a pier, and upon which the weight of the wall rests, when a building is shored up to allow of alterations in the lower part.
Needle furze —
a prickly leguminous plant of Western Europe; the petty whin (Genista Anglica).
Needle gun —
a firearm loaded at the breech with a cartridge carrying its own fulminate, which is exploded by driving a slender needle, or pin, into it.
Needle loom —
a loom in which the weft thread is carried through the shed by a long eye-pointed needle instead of by a shuttle.
Needle ore —
acicular bismuth; a sulphide of bismuth, lead, and copper occuring in acicular crystals; -- called also aikinite.
Needle shell —
a sea urchin.
Needle spar —
aragonite.
Needle telegraph —
a telegraph in which the signals are given by the deflections of a magnetic needle to the right or to the left of a certain position.
Sea needle —
the garfish.