Noun
I need a needle and thread to sew the button on your shirt.
The needle on the scale points to 9 grams.
The compass needle points north. Verb
His classmates needled him about his new haircut.
we needled him mercilessly for thinking that he had any chance of being the prom date for the school's most popular girl
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Noun
As Eve and Julian via Ares fight over a code for permanence that could turn Ares from code to human, stunt sequences involving contraptions from the familiar light cycle to a boat and submarine hybrid, and many moments are backed by needle drops from Nine Inch Nails, who scored the film, or others.—Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 10 Oct. 2025 Breaking the cycle of stress and burnout may begin with employers carefully analyzing employees' responsibilities both on and off the clock and threading the needle between productivity and home life balance.—Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025
Verb
After nearly a decade of using the sign to needle the beer capital, Anheuser-Busch walked away from the ad and was replaced by Miller Brewing.—Chris Foran, jsonline.com, 24 Sep. 2025 But Carr suggested a more technical approach to needle Trump’s media annoyances, saying in a Thursday episode of The Scott Jennings Podcast that the commission may review whether ABC’s The View should be subject to what’s known as the equal time rule.—Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 19 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for needle
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English nedle, from Old English nǣdl; akin to Old High German nādala needle, nājan to sew, Latin nēre to spin, Greek nēn
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
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