Brewer's: Tailor's Sword

(A), or A Tailor's Dagger. A needle.

The tailors cross-legged on their boards, Needle-armed, hand-extended, prepared To stab the black cloth with their swords [to make up mourning] The instant that death is declared.

PeterPindar: Great Cry and Little Wool, Epist. i.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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