bodkin

See also: Bodkin

English

The Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife, a modern-day dagger (4)

A bodkin arrowhead (5)

Alternative forms

• bodikin, bodkine, botkin, boidken

Etymology

From Middle English boydekin (“dagger”), apparently from *boyde, *boide (of unknown [Celtic?] origin) + -kin. Cognate with Scots botkin, boitkin, boikin (“bodkin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɒdkɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

bodkin (plural bodkins)

1. A small sharp pointed tool for making holes in cloth or leather.
2. A blunt needle used for threading ribbon or cord through a hem or casing.
   • 2017, Barry R. Harker, It’s Sunday in America‎^[1], →ISBN:

     As with compulsory Sunday worship, death for blasphemy was for the third offence. A bodkin, a large blunt needle, was thrust through the tongue for the second offence.

3. A hairpin.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 533:

     A rich, flushed colour—large black eyes—teeth that shone from their brilliant whiteness—a slender shape—and most minute feet, in such little shoes of Cordova leather—a silver chain round her neck, to which hung a medal of the Madonna—a dark-brown boddice and short skirt, relieved by a lacing of scarlet riband—long black hair, bound in one large plait round the head, and fastened by a silver bodkin.

4. A dagger.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265:

     When he himſelfe might his Quietus make / With a bare Bodkin?

   • 1932, D. H. Lawrence, The Ship of Death:

     And can a man his own quietus make / with a bare bodkin? / With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make / a bruise or break of exit for his life; / but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?

5. A type of long thin arrowhead.
6. (printing) A sharp tool, like an awl, formerly used for pressing down individual type characters (e.g. letters) from a column or page in making corrections.

Derived terms

• bodkined
• bodkinwise

 

Translations

pointed tool

• Bulgarian: шило (bg) n (šilo)
• Finnish: naskali (fi)
• Irish: meana m
• Ottoman Turkish: ابره (ibre)

blunt needle

• Bulgarian: губерка (bg) f (guberka)
• Finnish: pujotusneula
• Maori: auwai

hairpin — see hairpin

dagger — see dagger

type of arrowhead

• Finnish: bodkin-kärki

tool for picking up letters

Adverb

bodkin (not comparable)

1. Closely wedged between two people.

   to sit bodkin

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which Becky Is Recognised by the Family”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 366:

     He's too big to travel bodkin between you and me.

   • 1904, Elizabeth von Arnim, The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen, MacMillan, published 1904:

     Either he must come between us and be what is known as bodkin, or some one must get out and walk; and the bodkin solution not commending itself to me it was plain that if some one walked it must be myself.

   • 2018, Delphi Complete Works of R. S. Surtees (Illustrated)

     Moreover, Mr. Jorrocks insisted upon riding bodkin — a very awkward-sized bodkin he was — especially as he would have all three to sit back, so that the conversation might be general.

Further reading

• bodkin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Dobkin