needling

Pluralneedlings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of needle.

   His teammates were needling the rookie about his missed shot.

   The reporter kept needling the senator with the same blunt question.

   Note

   The -ing form serves every verb meaning of needle: piercing with a needle, teasing to provoke, and taking a needle's shape. In the teasing meaning the verb is transitive, so it wants an object: needling the rookie, needling the senator. As a gerund it heads a noun phrase (constant needling wore him down), and there it shades into the noun for teasing.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of provoking, teasing, or annoying someone, often through persistent remarks.

   Her gentle needling about his cooking was all in good fun.

   He grew tired of the relentless needling from his coworkers.

   Similarteasing, ribbing, taunting, goading

   Note

   The noun counts as well as it generalizes. Besides plain needling, the plural needlings names separate small jabs, and it pairs naturally with irritations. Paul Chrystal's When in Rome (2017) pictures them as a steady drip between husband and wife: each one small and nearly imperceptible, and wearing because they keep coming. The word suits persistence better than a single insult.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A person in need; someone who is poor or lacking the means to support themselves.

   The parish set aside bread each week for the needlings at its gate.

   He had grown up a needling, depending on neighbors for every meal.

   Similarpauper

   Note

   A word built on need with the suffix -ling, the ending of hireling and underling, so it names a person by what they lack. It only looks like a relative of needle. The noun for teasing comes from needle + -ing, and the two words are unrelated. Context settles which one a writer means: a needling who is fed or sheltered is a person, not a provocation.

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