needle girl

English

Noun

needle girl (plural needle girls)

1. Alternative form of needle-girl
   • 1859, Arthur Mursell, Lectures to Working Men, page 171:

     Of course he finds the fabric, but even then he wrings a profit which any honest man would be ashamed to extort from the labour of the needle girl.

   • 1872, August Mayhew, “Cupid's Diary”, in The Musical World, volume 50, page 35:

     What a child must I be, that the flimsy used up jargon which captivated the milliner should have disturbed my good sense! Yet, the hypocrite spoke of marriage ! I required a nicer temptation than the needle girl— -I was beyond the fascinations of a cheap, tea-garden courtship!

   • 2000, James G. Hepburn, A Book of Scattered Leaves: Poetry of Poverty in Broadside Ballads, →ISBN:

     A girl, tho' she's poor, she must live. The poor needle girl, God defend her! With feelings as keen and as tender As your proud city ladies remember — Mr. Bull, can you wonder at crime?

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