needle

A long, thin, sharp implement usually for piercing as in sewing, embroidery, acupuncture, tattooing, body piercing, medical injections, sutures, etc; or a blunt but otherwise similar implement used for forming loops or knots in crafts such as darning, knitting, tatting, etc.

• The seamstress threaded the needle to sew on a button.
• reusable needles

Any slender, pointed object resembling a needle, such as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc.

A fine measurement indicator on a dial or graph.

• a compass needle
• The needle on the fuel gauge pointed to empty.

A sensor for playing phonograph records, a phonograph stylus.informal

• Ziggy bought some diamond needles for his hi-fi phonograph.

A needle-like leaf found on some conifers.

• At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth.

A strong beam resting on props, used as a temporary support during building repairs.

The death penalty carried out by lethal injection.informal

A text string that is searched for within another string. (see: needle in a haystack)

• Both of these functions will look through the haystack for the specified needle and, if they find it, will return the portion of the string from the beginning of the needle to the end of the haystack.

Any of various species of damselfly of the genus Synlestes, endemic to Australia.

A move in which the performer begins with two hands and one leg on the floor, then kicks the other leg into a full split.

To pierce with a needle, especially for sewing or acupuncture.

• […]the eyes were once more beginning to show the old nystagmus; so I decided to needle the cataracts, and on Jan. 31 I needled the right eye.
• Possibly the greatest effect is achieved in the hand by needling the thumb, the index finger and the region of the 1st and 2nd metacarpal.

To tease in order to provoke; to poke fun at.transitive

• Billy needled his sister incessantly about her pimples.

To form, or be formed, in the shape of a needle.ambitransitive

• to needle crystals