pinion
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
Etymology: From Middle English pynyon, from Old French pignon, from Latin penna (“feather”).
Inflected forms:
form: pinions
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pinions
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pinioning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pinioned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pinioned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A wing.
pos: noun
examples: Therefore do nimble Pinion'd Doues draw Loue,
 And therefore hath the wind-ſwift Cupid wings:
See o'er the Alps his tow'ring Pinions ſoar,
 Where never Engliſh Poet reach'd before.
Press on! for it is godlike to unloose The spirit, and forget yourself in thought; Bending a pinion for the deeper sky, And, in the very fetters of your flesh, Mating with the pure essences of heaven!
Never seraph spread a pinion / Over fabric half so fair.
gloss: The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
pos: noun
gloss: Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
pos: noun
examples: An argument that he is pluckt, when hither / He ſends ſo poore a Pinnion of his Wing,
gloss: A moth of the genus Lithophane.
pos: noun
gloss: To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them.
When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges.
The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them.
Suppoſe, thou Fortune could to tameneſs bring, / And clip or pinion her wing; / Suppoſe thou could’ſt on Fate ſo far prevail / As not to cut off thy Entail.
The two old ducks…being pinioned, could not fly away.
They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing.
gloss: To bind the arms of someone, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: “[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”
Pinioning its extremities with the edge of the towel, she crushed off its offensive and defensive weapons with a splinter from the wall. The blowfly was her next victim, but an unexciting one.
Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter.
Both my arms are pinioned from behind by the Director of Comp., who wrestles me roughly down, on me with all his weight. I taste floor.
gloss: To restrain; to limit.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Know, sir that I / Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court, / Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye / Of dull Octavia.
I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me.
I am pinioned by a chain of reasoning! Why else do his four friends conspire to conceal […]
Related words: Lemmer's pinion
nameless pinion
pale pinion
tawny pinion
Derived words: pinioned
pinioner
pinioning
Translations: