needle has definitions from the field of botany
1
[ noun ] (botany) as of a conifer

Synonyms

acerate_leaf

Related terms

simple_leaf

2
[ noun ] a slender pointer for indicating the reading on the scale of a measuring instrument

Used in print

(Bern Dibner, "Oerstad and the Discovery of Electro...)

Electrical literature contained numerous references to lightning that had magnetized iron and had altered the polarity of compass needles .

Oersted 's own earlier experiments were unimpressive , possibly because he had , like other experimenters , laid the conducting_wire across the compass needle instead_of parallel with_it .

Related terms

pointer

3
[ verb ] goad or provoke,as by constant criticism

Synonyms

nettle goad

Examples

"He needled her with his sarcastic remarks"

Used in print

(John Dos Passos, Midcentury....)

You would n't have me throw the poor boy out on the street '' , Eileen said when I needled her about it .

Related terms

harass goad

4
[ noun ] a sharp pointed implement (usually steel)

Used in print

(Robert Penn Warren, Wilderness....)

A quarter inch this way or that for the hardbake , or the toffee , or the barley sugar , or the sardines , or the bitters , or the condensed_milk , or the stationery , or the needles - what could it mean ?

5
[ verb ] prick with a needle; in sewing or embroidering

Related terms

prick sewing

6
[ noun ] a stylus that formerly made sound by following a groove in a phonograph record

Related terms

stylus

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