to needle
- verb
- /ˈniːdəl/
- I know you were trying to needle me just now, but you can't do it.
- needled a friend
- keep needling
- stop needling
Well, you guys said tough to needle and they came through.
- Well, you guys said tough to needle and they came through.
- A sort of needling you OK, but like what if someone has something happened that night?
Examples
-
And you don't have to keep needling me about what's coming to you.
-
Every time I see him in the hallway, he needles me about being a starving musician.
-
I said that to needle Grandmother.
Fiction book (1995) -
Honey, why do you have to keep needling me all the time?
-
I never told her this, but sometimes the guys at work, they'd needle me.
-
The same way you're not supposed to needle somebody about their religion.
Fiction book (1992) -
Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham have been needling the president about Ms. Rice for weeks in television interviews.
Blog text (29) -
With a chuckle, Brian needled his friend: "Are you just going to leave the pizza carton on the grass?"
Fiction book (1998) -
CRISPIAN: The whole time you've been here, you've been needling me, and I'm not putting up with it anymore.
-
Whenever he makes a mistake, his friends like to needle him about it.
Synonyms
To start a fight or argument by annoying someone
Annoy someone again and again to make them react
To mock someone again and again to make them angry or upset
To urge someone to act by annoying or teasing them
To make a short teasing or critical comment about someone
To keep criticizing or telling someone to do things in an annoying way
To tease or criticize someone in a friendly way
To tease someone again and again with small mean remarks
To annoy someone with small, repeated complaints
To tease someone with repeated mean or mocking remarks
Tease someone to make them react
To tease or nag someone, often in a playful way
To tease or nag someone in a way that annoys them
Antonyms
Idioms
To pass something carefully through a very small gap or to do a very precise and difficult action
- Informal
To try to find something that is hidden among many things
Compounds
- Specialized
A thin hollow tube with a sharp point that doctors use to give medicine or take blood through the skin
A plant like a spiky bush with long stiff leaves that have thin threadlike edges
A thin metal tool with a point and a hole for thread used to push thread through cloth
- Specialized
A medical procedure that uses a hollow needle to take a small piece of body tissue for testing
- Archaic
A slender insect with bright shiny wings that eats mosquitoes and small insects
A climbing plant with many small creamy white flowers that grows over other plants
A slender flying insect with long body and clear wings often found near water
A long needle with a large eye that you use to thread thick thread for decorative sewing
A plant that grows in dry places with long stiff leaves that have thin threads along the edges
- Specialized
A metal rod in a sewing machine that holds and moves the needle up and down
- Specialized
A small part with thin metal rollers that helps a shaft turn smoothly
- Australian
A shrub from eastern Australia with leaves like needles and white flowers
- Australian
A shrub with sharp needle-shaped leaves and white flowers from eastern Australia
- Specialized
A disease of pine and spruce trees that makes their needles turn brown and fall early
- Jargon
A moment when a song starts in a film or show that makes the scene more powerful
- Australian
A large bush with sharp pointed leaves and creamy white flowers from central and eastern Australia
How Annoying
- US
- Offensive
Surface Forms
Etymology
A helpful way to remember the verb needle (to annoy) is to think of small sharp pokes: it comes from the old English nædl for a sharp point, so to needle someone is to 'prick' them with quick, irritating words or actions. That's why to needle someone means to tease or provoke them little by little.