▪ I. bodkin
(ˈbɒdkɪn)
Forms: 4 boidekyn, boytekyn, bode-, boydekynne, 4–5 boyde-, bodekyn, 5 boddekyn, 6 boddkynne, botken, -kin, bodkyn, bodkine, 7 (boidkene), 5– bodkin.
[Of unknown etymology: the orig. form in Eng. was boydekin, boidekyn, in 3 syllables. The form naturally suggests a dim. in -kin: but no primitive of the required form appears in Eng. or other related language. The phonetic history is also difficult.
(In default of finding it elsewhere, the derivation has been sought in Celtic. The Welsh biˈdogyn ‘ little dagger’, fixed on by some, must be discarded, both because it is accented on the penult, and because the ME. word was itself adopted in Welsh as bwytkin; but some still think it possible that boydekin may have originated in some kind of corruption of Ir. bideog, Gael. biodag, Welsh bidog dagger.)]
† 1. A short pointed weapon; a dagger, poniard, stiletto, lancet. Obs.
| 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 40 Slayn of Symkyn With panade or with knyf or boidekyn [v.r. boydekyn, boytekyn, Boydekynne]. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas vi. xii. (title), Victorious Julius Cæsar..was murdred with bodkins. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 49 One of his disciples tooke a boddekyn & prikked him in his feete. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings xviii. 28 They..prouoked them selues with knyues & botkens [1611 lancets]. 1547 Salesbury Dict. Eng. & Welsh, Bwytkin, a bodkyn. 1580 Sidney Arcadia 276, I..doe defie thee, in a mortall affray from the bodkin to the pike vpward. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 76 When he himselfe might his Quietus make With a bare Bodkin. 1657 Trapp Comm. Esther iv. 3 This was now a bodkin at their hearts. [1850 A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 137 The long bodkin with which those wicked Jews pierced his side.] |
2. A small pointed instrument, of bone, ivory, or steel, used for piercing holes in cloth, etc.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 42 Boydekyn or bodekyn, subucula, perforatorium. 1555 Fardle Facions ii. x. 212 About the poincte of the chinne thei haue a feawe heares as it ware pricked in with Bodkins. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 28 Wee challenge him at all weapons from the taylors bodkin to the watchmans browne bil. 1602 Plat Delightes for Ladies iii. xxx, Make little holes in the Cowcumber first with a wodden or bone bodkin. 1609 A. Craig Poet. Recreat. 4 Who according to the antient custome hath bored his eare with a boidkene. 1785 Reid Int. Powers ii. xix. 325 A spire at a very great distance seems like a point of a bodkin. |
3. A long pin or pin-shaped ornament used by women to fasten up the hair.
| 1580 Baret Alv. B 875 A bodkine or big needle to crest the heares, discriminale. 1635 J. Taylor (Water P.) in Harl. Misc. IV. 218 Women's masks, busks, muffs, fans, perriwigs, and bodkins. 1714 Pope Rape Lock v. 95 Then in a bodkin grac'd her mother's hairs. 1716 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. x. I. 32 Their hair is..set out with three or four rows of bodkins (wonderfully large, that stick out two or three inches from their hair). 1820 Scott Monast. xvii, She undid from her locks a silver bodkin around which they were twisted. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. II. iii. iv. 118 A rude bodkin of bone..employed in fastening the dress. 1864 Longfellow King Olaf viii. viii, 'Tis the bodkin that I wear When at night I bind my hair. |
† b. A frizzling-iron. Obs.
| 1580 Baret Alv. B 874 A bodkine or fine instrument that women curle their heare withall..a friseling iron. |
4. A needle-like instrument with a blunt knobbed point, having a large (as well as a small) eye, for drawing tape or cord through a hem, loops, etc.
| 1714 Pope Rape Lock ii. 128 Wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye. |
5. Printing. An awl-like tool used to pick out letters in correcting set-up type.
| 1846 Print. Apparatus Amateurs 17 The bodkin is used to pick out such of the types as are misplaced. |
6. transf. (colloq.) A person wedged in between two others where there is proper room for two only; esp. in phr. to ride bodkin or sit bodkin.
| [1638 Ford Fancies iv. i. (1811) 186 Where but two lie in a bed, you must be—bodkin, bitch-baby—must ye?] 1798 Loves of the Triangles 182 (L.) While the pressed bodkin, punched and squeezed to death, Sweats in the midmost place. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair II. 241 (Hoppe), He's too big to travel bodkin between you and me. 1872 F. Montgomery Thrown Together ii. 62 The three called a hansom outside, and Cecily..sat bodkin. |
7. Comb. and attrib., as bodkin-case, bodkin-work; bodkin-wise adv.; bodkin-beard, a pointed, dagger-shaped beard.
| a 1529 Skelton Elynour R. Prol. 82 Scarfes, feathers, and swerds, And thin bodkin beards. 1591 Lyly Endym. iii. iii. 36 Whether I shall frame the bodkin beard or the bush. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iv. (1593) 97 Both his shankes do grow In one round spindle bodkin-wise with sharpned point below. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth I. 41, I will have no more close hugs—no more bodkin work. |
▪ II. ˈbodkin, v.
[f. prec.]
trans. To make a bodkin of, squeeze in as a bodkin; cf. bodkin n. 6.
| 1791 Gibbon Let. 31 May in Mem. (1839) 354 If you can bodkin the sweet creature into the coach. |
▪ III. bodkin
(Ods bodkins!) var. of bodikin.
▪ IV. bodkin, bodkin-work
variant of baudekin.