Used only in the proverb, "to pass through a needle's eye" (Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25). Some interpret the expression as referring to the side gate, close to the principal gate, usually called the "eye of a needle" in the East; but it is rather to be taken literally. The Hebrew females were skilled in the use of the needle (Exodus 28:39; 26:36; Judges 5:30).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A small instrument of steel, sharply pointed at one end, with an eye to receive a thread, -- used in sewing.

2. (n.) See Magnetic.

3. (n.) A slender rod or wire used in knitting; a knitting needle; also, a hooked instrument which carries the thread or twine, and by means of which knots or loops are formed in the process of netting, knitting, or crocheting.

4. (n.) One of the needle-shaped secondary leaves of pine trees. See Pinus.

5. (n.) Any slender, pointed object, like a needle, as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc.

6. (v. t.) To form in the shape of a needle; as, to needle crystals.

7. (v. i.) To form needles; to crystallize in the form of needles.