ˈthread-ˌneedle
Also thread-the-needle; thread the (my) needle-eye, my grandmother's, the tailor's needle; dial. grandy needles.
[f. thread v. + needle.]
1. A children's game, in which, all joining hands, the player at one end of the string passes between the last two at the other end, the rest following.
| 1751 Advent. G. Edwards 140 (Halliwell) Eight people..joining hands like children at thread-needle. 1797–1805 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. III. 450 Children..playing thread my grandmother's needle. 1825–7 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 692 The prettiest sight..was a game at ‘Thread my needle’, played by about a dozen lasses. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax xxv, From top to bottom, the young men and women were running in a long ‘Thread-the-needle’. |
2. thread the needle, as verb phr.: (a) in dancing, denoting the movement in which the lady passes under her partner's arm, their hands being joined; (b) to pass in and out in a winding course; (c) in shooting: see quot. 18952.
| 1844 Dickens Christmas Carol ii, Advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place. 1895 Daily News 12 June 7/2 The toiling oarsman..might then have to ‘thread the needle’ (inshore for the boat, outside for the punt, close astern). 1895 Funk's Standard Dict. s.v., To thread the needle (Western U.S.), to fire a rifle-ball through an auger-hole barely large enough to allow the ball to pass without enlarging the hole. |