name, noun, verb, slang ·2 syllables ·Very common ·Middle school level
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"The seamstress threaded the needle to sew on a button."
"a compass needle"
"Ziggy bought some diamond needles for his hi-fi phonograph."
"At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth."
"Both of these functions will look through the haystack for the specified needle and, if they find it, will return the portion of the string from the beginning of the needle to the end of the haystack."
"[…]the eyes were once more beginning to show the old nystagmus; so I decided to needle the cataracts, and on Jan. 31 I needled the right eye."
"Billy needled his sister incessantly about her pimples."
"to needle crystals"
"It is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
A long, thin, sharp implement usually for piercing as in sewing, embroidery, acupuncture, tattooing, body piercing, medical injections, sutures, etc; or a blunt but otherwise similar implement used for forming loops or knots in crafts such as darning, knitting, tatting, etc.
Common synonyms include: acerate leaf, acicula, aculeus, acumination, aggravate, annoy.
It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
From Middle English nedle, from Old English nǣdl, from Proto-West Germanic *nāþlu, from Proto-Germanic *nēþlō, from pre-Germanic *neh₁-tleh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₁- (“to spin, twist”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Näddele (“sewing needle”), Dutch naald (“needle”), German Nadel (“needle, pin, crochet hook”), nähen (“sew”), Luxembourgish Nol (“needle”), Vilamovian nöłd (“needle”), Yiddish נאָדל (nodl, “needle, pin”), Danish, Swedish nål (“needle”), Elfdalian ną̊l (“needle”), Faroese, Icelandic nál (“needle”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk nål (“needle”), Gothic 𐌽𐌴𐌸𐌻𐌰 (nēþla, “sewing needle”), Finnish neula (“needle”). Further related with Welsh nyddu, Latin nēre, Sanskrit स्नायति (snāyati, “wraps up, winds”). Related to snood.
* As an English surname, from the noun needle. Compare Nadler. * As a Jewish surname, translation of the surname Nadel, itself meaning needle.