pin
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: archery
backgammon
ball-games
beverages
board-games
bodybuilding
brewing
business
chess
computing
curling
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
energy
engineering
food
games
golf
government
graphical-user-interface
hobbies
lifestyle
manufacturing
martial-arts
mathematics
medicine
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natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
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professional-wrestling
programming
sciences
sports
war
wrestling
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).
Inflected forms:
form: pins
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pins
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pinning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pinned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pinned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: With pins of adamant / And chains they made all fast.
gloss: A small nail with a head and a sharp point.
pos: noun
gloss: A cylinder often of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.
pos: noun
examples: Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.
gloss: The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.
pos: noun
gloss: A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
pos: noun
gloss: A leg.
pos: noun
tags: in-plural
informal
examples: I'm not so good on my pins these days.
gloss: Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.
pos: noun
examples: The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.
gloss: A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: US
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole
pos: noun
gloss: The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)
pos: noun
examples: The shot landed right on the pin.
gloss: The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.
pos: noun
examples: 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
gloss: A mood, a state of being.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: 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
gloss: One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.
pos: noun
gloss: Caligo.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: Blind with the pin and web
gloss: A thing of small value; a trifle.
pos: noun
examples: He […] did not care a pin for her.
gloss: A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.
pos: noun
gloss: A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.
pos: noun
gloss: The tenon of a dovetail joint.
pos: noun
gloss: A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.
pos: noun
tags: UK
examples: 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.
gloss: A pinball machine.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: 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.
gloss: A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.
pos: noun
gloss: An injection of PEDs.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.
pos: verb
tags: often
gloss: To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.
pos: verb
gloss: To pin down (someone).
pos: verb
examples: He pinned his opponent on the mat.
gloss: To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.
pos: verb
gloss: To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to pin a folder to the taskbar
gloss: To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Now I need to pin those needles.
gloss: To inject for performance enhancement.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
slang
gloss: To move a piece onto a blot, preventing the piece from further movement.
pos: verb
Synonyms: skittle
Related words: needle
Derived words: mispin
pin a rose on your nose
pin back
pin back one's ears
pin down
pin in
pinnable
pinnee
pin on
pin one's ears back
pin one's hopes on
pin the meter
pin the tail on the donkey
pin up
repin
underpin
unpinnable
Translations: