pin
nounverbverbnouncommon in dialogue
- Australia//pɪn//
- Australia/[ˈpʰɪn]/
- New Zealand//pən//
- New Zealand/[ˈpʰən]/
A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
noun
- 1
A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
With pins of adamant / And chains they made all fast.
- 2
A small nail with a head and a sharp point.
- 3
A cylinder often of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.
Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.
- 4
The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.
- 5
A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
- 6
informalA leg.
I'm not so good on my pins these days.
- 7
Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.
The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.
- 8
A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.
- 9
A simple accessory that can be attached to clothing with a pin or fastener, often round and bearing a design, logo or message, and used for decoration, identification or to show political affiliation, etc.
- 10
Either a scenario in which moving a lesser piece to escape from attack would expose a more valuable piece to being taken instead, or one where moving a piece is impossible as it would place the king in check.
- 11
The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole
- 12
The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)
The shot landed right on the pin.
- 13
The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.
For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at, Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue.
the very pin of his heart cleft
- 14
obsoleteA mood, a state of being.
Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […]
he had made the sign of the Cross on his head; for he was then on a merry pin and full of jearing
- 15
One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.
- 16
obsoleteCaligo.
Blind with the pin and web
- 17
A thing of small value; a trifle.
He […] did not care a pin for her.
- 18
A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.
- 19
A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.
- 20
The tenon of a dovetail joint.
- 21
A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.
Our ground crew were lodged in the main station, but they came to the cottage for a party when operations for the night had been cancelled and we had a new ‘gong’ (decoration) to celebrate. On these occasions we always installed a pin of bitter.
- 22
informalA pinball machine.
I spent most of my time in the arcade playing pins.
Attracted by game operation, many invested heavily in pins and rolldowns prior to last spring.
- 23
A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.
- 24
slangAn injection of PEDs.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *pinnaz Proto-West Germanic *pinn Old English pinn Middle English pinne English pin From Middle English pinne, from Old English pinn (“pin, peg, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint- (“protruding point, peak, peg, pin, nail”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pen (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch pin (“peg, pin”), Low German pin, pinne (“pin, point, nail, peg”), German Pinn, Pinne (“pin, tack, peg”), Bavarian Pfonzer, Pfunzer (“sharpened point”), Danish pind (“pin, pointed stick”), Norwegian pinn (“stick”), Swedish pinne (“peg, rod, stick”), Icelandic pinni (“pin”). More at pintle. No relation to classical Latin pinna (“fin, flipper, wing-like appendage, wing, feather”), which was extended to mean "ridge, peak, point" (compare pinnacle), and often confused with Latin penna (“wing, feather”). More at feather and pen (Etymology 3).
verb
- 1
To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.
- 2
To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.
- 3
To pin down (someone).
He pinned his opponent on the mat.
- 4
To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.
- 5
To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.
to pin a folder to the taskbar
- 6
To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.
When marshaling data, the interop marshaler can copy or pin the data being marshaled.
[…] you can use the GCHandle class mentioned earlier to pin a heap block until you explicitly unpin it.
- 7
To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.
Now I need to pin those needles.
- 8
slangTo inject for performance enhancement.
- 9
To move a piece onto a blot, preventing the piece from further movement.
verb
- 1
Variant of peenAlternative form of peen.
noun
- 1
A cataract of the eye.
Forms
- plural
- pins
- past tense
- pinned
- past participle
- pinned
- present participle
- pinning
- third person singular
- pins
pin · A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for…
pinball · A game, played on a device with a sloping base (a pinball…pinch · To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh,…pinched · Very thin, as if drawn together.