Word.ws English Dictionary

bodkin

/ˈbɒdkɪn/

bodkin noun: a small sharp pointed tool for making holes in cloth or leather.

bodkin: a small sharp pointed tool for making holes in cloth or leather
Image: Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ Uploaded by Mike Searson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

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.
    • 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.2017, Barry R. Harker, It’s Sunday in America, →ISBN
  3. A hairpin.
    • 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...1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 533
  4. A dagger.
    • When he himſelfe might his Quietus make / With a bare Bodkin?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...
    • And he smote Corinius on his shaven jowl with the dice box, calling him cheat and mangy rascal, whereupon Corinius drew forth a bodkin to smite him in the neck withal; […]1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 33
  5. A type of long thin arrowhead.
  6. 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.

Adverb

bodkin (not comparable)

  1. Closely wedged between two people.
    • to sit bodkin
    • He's too big to travel bodkin between you and me.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

Proper noun capitalized: Bodkin

Bodkin (plural Bodkins)

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic.

bodkin meaning in Tamil

bodkin in Tamil

செருப்பூசி, கோணியூசி, துன்னூசி

Examples of bodkin in a sentence

  • 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?1932, D. H. Lawrence, The Ship of Death:
  • 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.2018, Delphi Complete Works of R. S. Surtees (Illustrated)

Forms of bodkin

Noun
pluralbodkins
alternative formbodikin
alternative formbodkine
alternative formbotkin
alternative formboidken
Proper noun
pluralBodkins
alternative formBodkins

Origin of bodkin

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

Ultimately from the Middle Dutch personal name Bodekin, a pet form of Baldwin.

Words formed from bodkin

Questions about bodkin

What does bodkin mean?
Bodkin means a small sharp pointed tool for making holes in cloth or leather.
What is bodkin in Tamil?
Bodkin in Tamil is செருப்பூசி, கோணியூசி, துன்னூசி. See Bodkin meaning in Tamil.
How do you use bodkin in a sentence?
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?
What part of speech is bodkin?
Bodkin can be a noun, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bodkin?
Bodkin is pronounced /ˈbɒdkɪn/.
What is the plural of bodkin?
The plural of bodkin is bodkins.

Words near bodkin in the dictionary

  1. bodings
  2. Bodins
  3. Bodio
  4. Bodis
  5. Bodish
  6. bodkin
  7. bodkine
  8. bodkined
  9. bodkins
  10. Bodkinses
  11. bodkinwise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bodkin (page history and authors); Bodkin (page history and authors); bodkin (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bodkin.wav.

Cite this entry: “bodkin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bodkin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.