darning needle


noun
  1. a long needle with a long eye used in darning.

  2. Chiefly Northern and Western U.S. a dragonfly.

Origin of darning needle

1
First recorded in 1755–65

regional variation note For darning needle

2. See dragonfly.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use darning needle in a sentence

  • At this minyit a lady standin' behind th' chair dhrove a darning needle through his coat tails.

    Mr. Dooley Says | Finley Dunne
  • See that damsel fly, the slender, smaller, pretty-colored darning-needle?

    Little Busybodies | Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
  • He was nearly six feet already, with a long, thin body and head which amply justified his school nickname of 'the darning-needle.'

    Robert Elsmere | Mrs. Humphry Ward
  • There was a silence as she paused with the darning-needle in the air.

  • Fill into squab and then sew up with darning needle and stout string.

    Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book | Mary A. Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for darning needle

darning needle

noun
  1. a long needle with a large eye used for darning

  2. US and Canadian a dialect name for a dragonfly

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012