Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small bar or rod used for knitting, having a button at one end.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Nurse was indulgent enough to waste a few of her valuable minutes in making a scarlet flag and mounting it on a wooden knitting-pin, whilst Dick and Amy busily ornamented its base with fan shells.

    Troublesome Comforts A Story for Children Geraldine Glasgow

  • Just in front of her there was, curled round, a sleek black cat, and she stopped in her work now and then to scratch its head gently with her knitting-pin.

    Our Frank and other stories Amy Walton 1873

  • She stopped her knitting for a moment, put her knitting-pin to her lips, and answered very slowly and solemnly "Ye-es."

    The Revolution in Tanner's Lane Mark Rutherford 1872

  • (My granny having at this moment given me an opportunity to replace her snuff-box, I did not fail to profit by it; and as I perceived her knitting-pin had dropped on the floor, I stuck it into the skirt of her gown behind, so that whenever she looked for it, it was certain ever to be behind her.) "Mr Flat is of a very respectable family, I hear say," continued my grandmother.

    Percival Keene Frederick Marryat 1820

  • "You said a needle, granny; I was looking for a needle: you didn't say your knitting-pin; I could have told you where that was."

    Percival Keene Frederick Marryat 1820

  • A day or two later, the journal has this significant entry: "On parcelling out the stores, the stock of each man was found to be only one awl, and one knitting-pin, half an ounce of vermilion, two needles, a few skeins of thread, and about a yard of ribbon -- a slender means of bartering for our subsistence; but the men have been so much accustomed to privations that now neither the want of meat nor the scanty funds of the party excites the least anxiety among them."

    First Across the Continent; The Story of The Exploring Expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6 1805

  • On parceling out the stores, the stock of each man was found to consist of only one awl and one knitting-pin, one half ounce of vermilion, two needles, and about a yard of ribbon -- a slender means of bartering for our subsistence; but the men have been so much accustomed to privations that now neither the want of meat nor the scanty funds of the party excites the least anxiety among them. "

    Lewis and Clark Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 1894

  • For my part, "she adds, rubbing her nose with the tip of a long knitting-pin," I think it's a case. "

    Happy-Thought Hall 1876

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