needle girl

plural needle girls

1. alternativeAlternative form of needle-girl.

   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.

   1859, Arthur Mursell, Lectures to Working Men, page 171

   2 more examples

   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!

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

   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?

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