What does bodkin mean?
A bodkin is a long, thick, usually blunt-pointed needle with a generously sized eye, used in sewing to thread tape, ribbon, elastic, or drawstring cord through a narrow hem, casing, or channel where an ordinary needle would be too flimsy to manage. It is a standard tool in dressmaking and upholstery, and modern versions are often made of metal or plastic with a large eye or a clip that grips the material being drawn through. Historically, the word also denoted a small pointed instrument for piercing holes in cloth or leather, and — most famously — a slender dagger or stiletto. That older sense survives largely through literature, above all Hamlet's meditation on whether it is nobler to endure life's misfortunes than to end them 'with a bare bodkin.' Today, when people encounter the word outside Shakespeare, they are most likely holding a humble haberdashery item, making bodkin a pleasing example of a once-lethal term domesticated into everyday craft use.
nounA bodkin is a blunt-ended, large-eyed needle used for threading tape, ribbon, or cord through hems and casings, or historically a slender pointed dagger or stiletto.
- A long, blunt needle with a large eye, used for threading tape, ribbon, cord, or elastic through a hem, casing, or seam.
- A small pointed instrument formerly used for punching holes in cloth or leather.
- (Historical/literary) A slender, sharp-pointed dagger or stiletto.
"She threaded the elastic through the waistband casing with a bodkin."
"She drew the ribbon through the channel of the curtain heading with a bodkin."
"Hamlet asks whether it is nobler to suffer the slings of fortune or to take arms against them with a bare bodkin."
Regular plural, formed by adding -s.
"The workbasket held needles, pins, and several bodkins of different sizes."
Shakespeare's 'bare bodkin' made this humble sewing tool famous as a symbol of suicide in Hamlet.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bodkin
The word entered English in the late Middle Ages, attested from the fourteenth century. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; it has often been linked to Irish or Scottish Gaelic words for a dagger or to medieval Dutch and French terms, but no single derivation is firmly established, and lexicographers have treated its ancestry with caution. Despite the murky etymology, the word has been stable in English for centuries, carrying senses ranging from a piercing tool to a dagger before settling primarily into its modern sewing meaning.
How bodkin is actually used
In modern usage, 'bodkin' almost always refers to the sewing notion — a threading needle sold in haberdashery shops. The dagger sense is now essentially literary or historical, familiar chiefly through Shakespeare. The plural is 'bodkins'.