pinballn.
/ˈpɪnbɔːl/, U.S. /ˈpɪnˌbɔl/, /ˈpɪnˌbɑl/ Originally U.S.
1. A pincushion. Now historical.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > sewing or ornamenting textile fabric > [noun] > sewing > equipment for > pin > pin-cushion
pincase1480
pin-pillow1481
cushionet1542
pincushion1605
pinball1803
pinholder1889
1803 E. S. Bowne Let. 9 Aug. in Girl's Life Eighty Years Ago (1887) 175 We went to a room where they keep their work for sale,—pocket-books, pin balls, [etc.].
1870 L. M. Alcott Old-fashioned Girl vi. 76 Her scissors and pin-ball at her side, and her thimble on.
1910 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 3 Sept. 11/6 You should see the various sorts of pin cushions, pin balls, iron holders, [etc.].
1963 Times 9 Mar. 11/5 Silver-banded pin-balls were then made to hang from the girdle and even Queen Elizabeth herself deigned to accept a New Year gift of a ‘pin pillow embrodred’.
2.
a. Originally: a game resembling bagatelle, in which a marble is propelled up a sloping board on which various hazards and targets are marked out with pins. In later use: a modified version of the game played on a pinball machine (see pinball machine n. at Compounds); a computer simulation of this; a pinball machine or table.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun]
troll-madam1572
nine holes1573
pigeonholes1608
small trunksc1610
hole1611
trucks1671
roly-poly1707
Mississippi1728
bumble-puppy1794
bubble the justice1801
bagatelle1819
cockamaroo1850
pigs in clover1889
pinball1911
pinball game1911
Skee-Ball1923
Corinthian bagatelle1933
pachinko1949
1911 R. Bliss Illustr. Catal. in B. Whitton Bliss Toys & Dollhouses (1979) 27 Pin ball game... One of our popular marble games.
1916 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Jrnl.-Gaz. 26 Sept. 4/4 There are handball, squash, indoor baseball, volleyball, pinball and many other very real sports.
1933 Times 21 Dec. 16/3 He opened shop premises..for the purposes of playing a game known as pinball belonging to the same type of game as Corinthian bagatelle.
1952 J. Lait & L. Mortimer U.S.A. Confidential ii. xxii. 260 They bum change from customers to play the pin-balls and juke-boxes.
1976 M. Deakin & J. Willis Johnny go Home i. 27 The biggest amusement arcade he had ever seen..the metropolitan mecca of pinball and table football.
1994 Guardian 2 June (OnLine section) 4/1 But now pinball has plugged in to the cyber age and sales are booming.
b. A small metal ball used in a pinball machine. Frequently taken as the type of a thing moved rapidly from place to place in a haphazard way (cf. pinball v.).
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun] > ball
pummet1572
bagatelle-ball1836
pinball1942
1942 Sunday Times-Signal (Zanesville, Ohio) 25 Oct. ii. 8/1 Our coach..was really banging those pinballs around.
1964 Times 5 Oct. 8/4 Mr. Nakano, in an open letter, accuses the party bosses of treating the working class like ‘a pinball in pachinko games’.
1988 New Yorker 26 Sept. 109/2 Oswald..feels at peace only when he's riding the subway in New York..and caroms like a pinball from one home to another, from one set of beliefs to their opposite.
1993 F. Cooper I believe in Angels (BNC) 115 It was as if their lives had been aimless, random as pinballs.
Compounds
pinball arcade n. an amusement arcade of pinball machines.
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society > leisure > entertainment > place of amusement or entertainment > [noun] > amusement arcade > specific
pinball arcade1939
video arcade1975
1939 K. Fearing in New Yorker 26 Aug. 19/1 We had our own World's Fair in a pinball arcade.
1951 Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News 9 Mar. 5/1 A pinball arcade at 107 Thames Street.
1989 T. Parker Place called Bird xiii. 162 They used to have a lot more here than there is now: a bowling alley, a pinball arcade, a cinema and everything.
pinball game n. = sense 2a.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun]
troll-madam1572
nine holes1573
pigeonholes1608
small trunksc1610
hole1611
trucks1671
roly-poly1707
Mississippi1728
bumble-puppy1794
bubble the justice1801
bagatelle1819
cockamaroo1850
pigs in clover1889
pinball1911
pinball game1911
Skee-Ball1923
Corinthian bagatelle1933
pachinko1949
1911Pin ball game [see sense 2a].
1935 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Apr. 1/7 One of the bills would allow the State..to license claw machine and pinball games.
1995 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 Mar. d1/6 Williams Electronic Games..will release a Dirty Harry pinball game this spring.
pinball machine n. a game in the form of a sloping table on which a small metal ball is propelled between various hand-operated flippers and mechanisms which accelerate or redirect it, the aim being to score points by hitting targets with the ball while keeping it in play.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun] > board or table
bagatelle-board1836
pin table1933
pinball machine1935
pinball table1935
1935 Washington Post 16 July 15/6 Seizure of all claw, slot and pin-ball machines and similar alleged ‘gambling devices’ was requested today.
1951 J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye v. 46 We just had..hamburgers and played the pinball machine for a little while.
1993 T. Hawkins Pepper xiv. 275 I end up in an arcade on Old Compton Street feeding £1 nuggets into thankless pinball machines.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > parts and fittings of firearms > [noun] > sight > types of
dispart1578
telescopic sight1674
plain sight1686
aim-frontlet1745
hausse1787
foresight1806
gloaming sight1817
night-sight1822
bead1831
leaf1832
backsight1847
globe sight1847
pendulum hausse1850
hindsight1851
tangent scale1859
tangent1861
tangent backsight1862
training pendulum1862
training level1863
peep sight1866
dispart-sight1867
notch sight1867
buck-horn1877
orthoptic1881
aperturea1884
pinball-sighta1884
dispart patch1884
sight bar1884
flap-sight1887
barley-corn1896
ring sight1901
riflescope1902
spotting scope1904
tangent sight1908
Aldis sight1918
wind-sight1923
scope sight1934
gyro-sight1942
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 682/1 Pin-ball Sight, (Rifle), another name for the bead-sight; also called pin-head sight.
pinball table n. = pinball machine n.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun] > board or table
bagatelle-board1836
pin table1933
pinball machine1935
pinball table1935
1935 Chicago Tribune 12 Mar. 1/1 Chicago likewise is world center of the coin-operated amusement machine industry, a pinball table game.
1946 Independent Record (Helena, Montana) 1 Sept. 14/4 The plan above has the top of a pin-ball table.
1993 R. James Payback (BNC) 119 Jamie loses his pound on the old fashioned pinball table.
pinball wizard n. a person highly skilled at pinball.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > other specific games > [noun] > others > participant
pinball wizard1968
1968 P. Townshend (title of song) Pinball Wizard.
1992 Zzap 64! (BNC) 33 There are thrills, spills and points aplenty in Hurricane. Are you a pinball wizard?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
pinballv.
/ˈpɪnbɔːl/, U.S. /ˈpɪnˌbɔl/, /ˈpɪnˌbɑl/ transitive. To move from one thing or place to another, esp. quickly or in a seemingly haphazard way, like a ball in a pinball machine. Also occasionally intransitive.
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1955 College Eng. 16 376/2 Murray's rule was pinballed from book to book right down to the present.
1981 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 1 Sept. a19/2 The citizen..is ‘pinballed’ from local to Federal Government and back again.
1996 Financial Times 11 Jan. 21/2 The plot pinballs him from one memorable heavy to the next.
2000 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Jan. 135/3 The sound was pinballing between the glaciers.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1803
v.1955