A small, pointed implement. Especially a thick needle or awl for piercing cloth or leather, or a long pin for fastening hair. In older use, also a slender dagger. Bodkin suggests compact sharpness, a tool meant to slip through.

Middle English bodkin, long used for pointed tools and, in some contexts, a small dagger. The exact formation is uncertain, though the diminutive ending -kin fits the sense. A "little piercer," practical enough to live in a sewing kit and sharp enough to turn metaphorical in literature.