pins and needles
1
2.8
- noun
- /pɪnz ənd ˈnidəlz/
:
hormigueo
- Yeah, I've got pins and needles in my hand.
- pins and needles sensation
- feel pins and needles
- pins and needles feeling
Oh my God my foot is dead Ow ow ow pins and needles.
- Oh my God my foot is dead Ow ow ow pins and needles.
- My thumb is still like complete pins and needles.
Examples
-
She experienced pins and needles in her foot after it had been asleep for a while.
-
After sitting on the floor for too long, I stood up and felt pins and needles in my legs.
-
And in a few days, the pins-and-needles sensation did go away, and she thought no more about it.
Fiction book (1992) -
But it felt to her more like pins and needles.
Fiction book (2001) -
Pins and needles prickle my arms and legs.
Fiction book (2001) -
She frowned as she noticed that the pins-and-needles feeling in her toes still hadn't gone away.
Fiction book (1992) -
The pins-and-needles feeling hadn't worn off by afternoon, and although she felt all right, she decided that since Mum and Dad were trusting her to do everything right, she probably ought to talk to the AI about it.
Fiction book (1992) -
I've finished the chemo, but I still have residual pins and needles; they're lessening now but still with me.
Academic text (2010) -
The beam was inaudible, tuned as it was to affect a non-human nervous system, but she could feel the almost-vibration, an unpleasant pins-and-needles tingling on her exposed skin.
Fiction book (1990) -
In her ears, the mother's voice churns in the roar of the vacuum, nearing and receding, prickling pins and needles into her fingertips, up her arms, and into the back of her neck.
Fiction book (1991)
Synonyms
26
3.3
A small prickly feeling on the skin often caused by excitement or cold
22
3.4
A slight prickling feeling like many tiny pins touching the skin
1
5.6
A tingling, slightly stinging feeling on the skin like many small pins
1
9.9
A feeling of tingling, prickling, burning, or numbness in the skin
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal constituents 'pins' and 'needles' evoke a prickling physical sensation, and the idiom extends that bodily image to describe anxious anticipation; this gives a detectable metaphorical link. However, the specific meaning 'nervous anxiety or eager anticipation' is a figurative extension not fully predictable from the parts alone, so a B1 learner who only knows the words may not reliably infer the idiomatic sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Pins and needles comes from the sharp, pricking feeling you get when part of your body is numb and then starts to wake up; people imagine lots of tiny pins or needles touching the skin. That's why the phrase means 'a tingling or prickling feeling'.