needle-girl

English

Alternative forms

• needle girl

Noun

needle-girl (plural needle-girls)

1. (historical) A girl or young woman who is employed doing sewing and simple embroidery.
   • 1848, Joseph Holt Ingraham, Jennette Alison; Or, The Young Strawberry Girl:

     Her complexion is pure and warm, though pale, as if from too close confinement; for I have now no doubt that she is a needle-girl.

   • 1856, Green Peas Picked From the Patch of Invisible Green Esq., page 133:

     Indeed I soon, found that the poor needle-girl was not the orphan with property.

   • 2013, Pierre Coustillas, Collin Partridge, George Gissing: The Critical Heritage, →ISBN, page 143:

     There is the needle-girl, with her helplessness, her nerveless imbecility, her utter ignorance, her dolorous prettiness, her thriftless marriage, her half-starved children dying about her like flies.

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