Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK und.) a short crowbar used in house-breaking.

1695

Proc. Old Bailey 20 Feb. n.p.: There was an Iron Betty found in the Prisoners house, which was lost by a Butcher, which the Thieves call an Embroidering Needle.

a prostitute.

1853		T. Carlyle Discourse on the Nigger Question 25: We have thirty thousand distressed needlewomen, – the most of whom cannot sew a reasonable stitch; for they are in fact, Mutinous Serving-maids [...] and at last are on the street, with five hungry senses.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

sexual intercourse.

1684		Tongue Combatants 17: Choyce Needle work and other Arts, / Attaind with care and cost. / My infamy commands those Parts / Must now be kept from Boast.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(W.I.) of a young woman, to give oneself in marriage to a man whom one knows will be of no use as a sexual partner.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

to have sexual intercourse.

1573		‘Cambridg Libell’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 338: A cleark doth thread her needle often, / For she doth daylye stiche.
1656		Sportive Wit ‘O That I Durst’ in Bold (1979) 157: O that I durst but thread your needle, lady / There would I work until I had made a baby.
c.1840		‘Fun of the Fair’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 106: Servant maids and ’prentice boys; / At threade the needle is all their joys.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 1 Nov. 2/2: There was a young lady of Cheadle, / Was deeply beloved by the beadle, / But she scoffod at his prayers / And gave herself airs, / And judiciously threaded his needle.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 49: Brochier. To copulate; ‘to play at thread-the-needle’.

(US drugs) injectable narcotics.

1963

Sacramento Bee (CA) 11 Aug. 26/3: He wants me to be a patsy for peddlin’ his needle candy.

1. an intravenous drug addict.

1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 323: Dempsey was a needle jabber, an aristocrat of the drug addicts.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 115: I have met every kind of a crook there is [...] needle pumpers and snow snifters.
1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 91: You’ve got to be an actor in this sleuthing game, and being able to look like a hop head, needle jabber, and snow bird sometimes comes in handy.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 106/1: needle-fiend. 1. An addict who takes narcotics through the hypodermic.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 164: needle-fiend A hypodermic user of narcotics.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 144/1: Needle-knight. A drug addict who uses a hypodermic needle or any crude substitute.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 129: Needle fiend – A drug vassal who takes his master hypodermically [...] Needle jabber – Same as Needle fiend.

2. one who fetishizes the needle and the mechanics of injection.

1938

D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 106/1: needle-fiend. [...] 2. An addict who makes a kind of fetish out of the needle and enjoys dallying with the needle when using it.

1. (US drugs) an intravenous drug user who is as stimulated by the act of injection as by the action of the drug.

1968		L. Wolf Voices from the Love Generation 6: I’m not a needle-freak.
1969		Gandalf’s Garden 6 n.d. 11: needle-freaks: those who have got to enjoy the habit of injecting themselves for the pleasure of the needle, ending up injecting anything.
1979		H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 131: Some ‘needle freaks’ are interested in the injection process as much as whatever is available to put through the needle.
1999		Indep. 12 July 5: Many addicts who were given orally taken methadone still felt a need to buy street heroin, he said. ‘Some people are needle freaks.’.
c.2003		Dalton Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 Once flagged one simply squeezed the binky and down she went, to reregister just stop squeezing and back came the blood, effort less needlefreaking. No chance of pushing the whole rig down and through, very easy to do with a plunger.

2. a prostitute’s sadistic client who derives pleasure from hiring a woman with large breasts and paying her for every needle she permits him to stick into her flesh.

1974

in Oui mag. Mar.

(US drugs) a narcotics addict.

1984

L.A. Weekly 13 Jan. at backpages.com 🌐 And like I’m pretty sure I mentioned before, [...] jaded needleheads will show off their rotting yellow junkie teeth in smiles at this stuff.

1. (drugs) a drug addict.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 144/1: Needle-man. 1. A drug addict who uses a hypodermic needle.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1991		Monster Voodoo Machine on Burn [EP] ‘Needle Man’ [song title] Junkie man lyin’ down on the floor he ain’t never gonna shoot no more.

2. (US) a doctor.

1965–70		in DARE.
2002		Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter 2 Apr. 🌐 Gripping Nate Wood’s foot, Dr. Isaac Pope slides an IV needle into the 7-month-old infant’s instep. [...] He doesn’t know it, nor do the countless other children Pope has tended, but the needle man is the proverbial pillar of the community.

(Aus. prison) the spoon in which one heats the heroin/water mixture prior to making an injection.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Needle neddie. Spoon for preparing narcotics for injection. Neddie may refer to heroin via ‘horse’.

(US drugs) an intravenous narcotic addict.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(US drugs) anywhere that narcotics drug users congregate to inject themselves.

1997

Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 35: Blue still keeps his points [...] in that satchel, carrying it with him everywhere for fear of losing it in the needle palace. [Ibid.] 68: You can walk a block or two to the established needle house.

(drugs) a variety of locations in New York City, small oases of grass in the larger world of streets and buildings, frequented by heroin users.

1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 19: Of the hundreds of locations outside Harlem where addicts buy drugs, one of the most typical is at the corner of 71st Street where Broadway pushes through Amsterdam Avenue. [...] To the drug addicts it is ‘Needle Park.’ Nothing justifies the word ‘park’ except four or five park benches stuck together on a tiny concrete island at the center of the intersection.
1971		S.J. Perelman letter 22 Dec. in Crowther Don’t Tread on Me (1987) 273: I’m living in a very nice flat [...] far away from Needle Park, mugging, and everything we deplore in Manhattan.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 174: He hooks up with some broad by Needle Park.

1. (US drugs) an addict who injects narcotics.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

2. (US) a doctor or nurse.

1965–70

in DARE.

see shooter n.²

(US drugs) of an addict, phobic of needles.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 106/1: needle-shy. A phobia, either permanent or temporary, which manifests itself in a revulsion against using the hypodermic needle or seeing it used.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

see stuff n. (5c)

(US) a narcotics addict.

1911

T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 59: (The Judge And The Boys Are Off For A Vacation) Curlock Holmes expert needle worker.

to make a futile attempt to withdraw from addiction.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

1. to use up all the available drugs.

1942

Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.

2. to attempt to end one’s addiction to narcotics.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

(drugs) to inject a drug.

1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 117: When the opium is taken away from him [...] he hits the needle and becomes a ‘hypo’.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 289: He’s hitting the needle again.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 12: Hit the needle — To inject a drug.

(US) addicted to narcotics.

1940

R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 220: We think about them the way we think about old-time yeggs or needled-up punks.

(drugs) using narcotic drugs.

1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Drunk, Disorderly & Dead’ Dan Turner — Hollywood Detective Apr.🌐 ‘I—I’ve found out he’s . . . on the needle,’ she whimpered woefully.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 279: The dealer’s on the needle.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 81: Hamilton [...] how long you been on that needle?
1963		N.Y. Times 3 June 19: None of us has been in prison. None has been on the needle.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 147: I’m high, I’m connected, I’m on the needle.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 343: on the needle: Being a narcotics injecter.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 172: Gary [...] looking so damn bad, growing thin on that needle.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 57: I’ve been on the needle since I was ten years old.

to be annoyed.

1873		Sl. Dict. 235: To ‘cop the needle’ is to become vexed or annoyed.
1895		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Tricky Little Trilby 🎵 ‘Those are hardly ideal feet,’ he said / Then I copped the needle on the spot .

to become annoyed.

1884		Sporting Times 5 Jan. 5/4: At last old Barney got the needle and demanded [...] that the boy should be taught music.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Jul. 14/1: ‘Pendragon’ must have ‘got the needle’ when he wrote in a recent issue of the Referee – ‘The many friends of the Referee in Australia who have literally inundated us with details of the match between Beach and Hanlan by this mail will please hereby accept the cordial thanks, for Self and Co., of Pendragon.’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 20 July 2/4: Ned had got the needle proper, I’d the spike myself a bit.
1896		Pink & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Chance Your Luck 🎵 The needle never get, though you even learn the pet / Is engaged.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 41: Wot ’as ’e got the needle abaht?
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July 17/1: The rouseabouts got ‘the needle’ because the shearers got ‘bloo-mong’ for dinner and they didn’t.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Dec. 4/8: These pomes wot’s written about the girls / Gives me the needle much.
1916		G. Squiers Aerbut Paerks, of Baernegum 2: Ower old un daint ’arf get the needle.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 995: In fact, in sporting parlance [...] we had got the needle.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 7: Needle: Angry.
1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 243: Got the needle with the Kosher boys over the dogs.
1958		F. Norman in Sun. Graphic 20 July in Norman’s London (1969) 19: The Soho characters have been pushed out by the tradespeople, and they have got the dead needle about it.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 197: When accosted by an irritating person who ‘gets their goat’ or ‘gets their needle’, they complain ‘Why don’t you drop dead?’.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 92: He had got the dead needle about everything.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 135: When I wouldn’t buy any more for him Redmond got the needle.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 148: They discuss someone [...] ‘making a hash of things’ or ‘getting the dead needle’.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 194: Needle, the Resentment: ‘It’s plain he’s got the needle to me.’.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘May the Force be with You’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He’s probably still got the needle over that time you nicked him!
1989		in G. Tremlett Little Legs 145: I’m upset. I’ve got the needle.

1. to irritate.

1879		‘’Arry on Niggers’ in Punch 15 Mar. 113/2: Well, that gave me the needle, dear boy.
1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ in Punch Almanack n.p.: Dowds to guy and pooty ones’ to wheedle, / And give all rival chaps the needle.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 26 Oct. 4/4: He gives the girls the spike by his continual comparison of Colonial institutions with things in other countries.
1892		‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ in Punch 24 Sept. 133/2: They call this the ‘Needle Bath’, Charlie. It give me the needle fust off.
1895		W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 120: It was the people at it give me the needle.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Mar. 4/7: These ‘surprise’ visits of Royalty to hospitals give us the plain needle.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 73: You and me, don’t you know? In the same boat. Soft soaping. Give you the needle that would.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 231: To have her flat screwed just like any steamer would give her the needle badly.
1949–51		in M. Daly Profile of Youth 233: If the lad is really crushed he’ll reply, ‘Hey, you gave me the needle!’.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 193: What’s give you the needle? [...] What the ’ell’s biting you?
1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 53: The needle he had given old Abby was worth the trial.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 55: I was giving the needle to this fugh-faced, dessicated old bastard.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 192: She is now giving me the needle in spades.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 96: He, she or it may [...] ‘give you the needle’.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 31: They give us the needle. Call Duane nigger. Imply to me I suck his cock.

2. (US) to cuckold.

1928

J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 142: She was keeping a big masculine doll on my money. When I heard she had given me the needle I was furious.

3. (US) to criticise.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 5: You were giving me the needle. The business.
2003		P. Cornwell Blow Fly (2004) 120: She won’t mind giving him the needle.

4. (US) to kill.

1999

J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 410: Don’t worry, Jeffty. I’ll give you the needle quick. You won’t feel a thing.

to be irritated (with someone).

1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 52: [A] person out of temper is said to have the needle.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 29: The formation of the quarries gave him a chance to work off his spite on a lag he had the ‘needle’ to.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 192: He had the needle to me after that.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 90: This twirl had the needle to one geezer in particular and was really after nicking him.
1959		F. Norman Fings II ii: My life, they won’t ’alf ’ave the dead needle when they find that missin’.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 141: [T]he sea smashed against the prom like it had the real needle with it.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 44: He had had the needle all right.

to tease.

1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 133: This is the kind of talk I like to hear, when I know they’re putting in the needle in a friendly way.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 134: I had to put the needle in.

(Irish) to get angry.

1866		Wild Boys of London I 36/1: Don’t take the needle so quick. I was only in fun.
1897		Eve. Standard 24 Dec. 4, 5: When one, or both, of two proficient antagonists at any sport have taken the needle... the result, nine times out of ten, is an improvement in the exhibition [F&H].
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 54: You’re too quick to take the needle, man.

see separate entry.

a dressmaker.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Feb. 12/3: The fashionable firm was driven to this step by the persistent way in which amateur needle-dodgers fingered and turned over and sometimes tore the flimsy creations.

dress-making.

1902

Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 14/4: The washer-lady, the mangler, and the multitude of stitching sisters move Heaven and earth to have themselves or their bairns taught the pianoforte. [...] But everyone has personal experience of the stitching-she who offers two days’ needle-dodging a week in return for music lessons; and the palmist, the pedagogue in petticoats, and the manicurist, who offer their services for ‘Nelly Bly’ tunings and chromatic scalings.

a tailor.

1801

Sporting Mag. XVII Oct. 19/2: His galligaskins have been made by the same needle-jerker.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

(US) a doctor or nurse.

1965–70

in DARE.

(Aus./US) a tailor.

1912		Sport (Adelaide) 31 Aug. 14/1: They Say [...] That The Murray Street needle-pushers have a liking for common garden ale.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 326: He used to be in a tailor shop in Minneapolis (they do say he’s a smart needle-pusher, at that).