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The sliding thread holder in a sewing machine, which carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread, to make a lock stitch.

A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.

Work done by sewing, esp. when a continuous line of stitches is shown on the surface; stitches, collectively.

The act of sewing; also, the line along which two things or parts are sewed together, or are united so as to form a seam, or that which resembles a seam.

a bearing; also, to make tight, as by winding, or drawing; as, to take up slack thread in sewing. (r) To make up; to compose; to settle; as, to take up a quarrel. [Obs.] Shak. -- To take up arms. Same as To take arms, above. -- To take upon one's self. (a) To assume; to undertake; as, he takes upon himself to assert…

That which takes up or tightens; specifically, a device in a sewing machine for drawing up the slack thread as the needle rises, in completing a stitch.

A kind of lace made from common sewing thread, with a peculiar stitch. Tatting shuttle, the shuttle on which the thread used in tatting is wound.

A device for checking the delivery of the thread in a sewing machine, so as to give the stitch the required degree of tightness.

A kind of cap or cover, or sometimes a broad ring, for the end of the finger, used in sewing to protect the finger when pushing the needle through the material. It is usually made of metal, and has upon the outer surface numerous small pits to catch the head of the needle.

The operation of sewing up a laceration of the neck of the uterus.

A kind of closely twisted, strong sewing silk, used by tailors, saddlers, and the like.

To undo, as something sewn, or something inclosed by sewing; to rip apart; to take out the stitches of.

-- Waxed end, a thread pointed with a bristle and covered with shoemaker's wax, used in sewing leather, as for boots, shoes, and the like; -- called also wax end. Brockett.

n the other; also said of a square-rigged vessel which has her studding sails set. Cf. Goosewinged. -- Wing case (Zoöl.), one of the anterior wings of beetles, and of some other insects, when thickened and used to protect the hind wings; an elytron; -- called also wing cover. -- Wing covert (Zoöl.), one of the small…

ax, hemp, or silk; material spun and prepared for use in weaving, knitting, manufacturing sewing thread, or the like.