Definition of "pins and needles" []

• A tingling sensation felt in a part of the body numbed from lack of circulation. (noun-plural)
• On pins and needles In a state of tense anticipation. (idiom)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The pins and needles hurting; Tim gone, replaced by a blond ingenu."
• "Pressing his forehead against the cold window-pane, as he used to do when he was a child, and keeping it there until the skin turned white and he felt pins and needles in his head, Maigret, without realizing it, followed the movements of two workmen who, on the other side of the Seine, were working on some scaffolding."
• " No wonder these women were so graceful and fluid; their limbs would be trained from childhood to accept such a pose, while hers protested agonisingly, pins and needles stabbing painfully through both feet."