darning needle

American  

noun

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

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

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darning needle British  

noun

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

2. a dialect name for a dragonfly

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Regionalisms

See dragonfly.

Etymology

Origin of darning needle

First recorded in 1755–65

Example Sentences

But Henner and George Landis were not antique dealers, never sold so much as a darning needle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Flesh & Blood President Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers finally yielded his mother-in-law's missing darning needle.

From Time Magazine Archive

He looked, and there gleaming up at him like a reptilian eye glittered in his incision the end of a steel darning needle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mrs. Hickock rethreaded her darning needle; her husband rocked his rocker and sucked on an unlit pipe.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

She had made it herself, on the head of a darning needle which had a broken eye, so it couldn’t be used as a needle any more.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder