pin1
/pɪn
/noun
1A thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end and a round head at the other, used for fastening pieces of cloth, paper, etc.One of them cleverly decorates a vase by drawing plant leaves using a sharp pin, while another shapes small frog-like figures to be put on ashtrays....
- To adjust the fit, stick the tapes on the underneath side to the front of the nappy or use grips or pins to fasten a cloth nappy.
- She had already filed down one end of the pin to have a sharp point and thin width; it had never hurt to be prepared before.
Synonyms
tack, safety pin, nail, staple, skewer, spike, brad, fastener
1.1A small brooch or badge: a gold and diamond lapel pin...
- Jewellery in the form of bracelet, rings, pins and earrings have been used universally since time immemorial.
- The cufflinks, lapel pins and brooches have been made in Orkney and are available only to MSPs and parliament visitors.
- In my satchel I had a black leathern pouch stuffed with silver pieces, and the tiny red one, full of rings and pins and brooches and chains.
Synonyms
badge, brooch, sticker
1.2 Medicine A steel rod used to join the ends of fractured bones while they heal.The operation was success and her femur was pinned together with three large metal pins....
- Surgeons at St James's Hospital in Leeds, where she was treated, thought she may lose her legs but managed to save them with a variety of metal implants, screws, plates and pins.
- They removed damaged tissue and inserted bolts and pins, trying to piece together his shattered bones and tendons.
1.3A metal peg that holds down the activating lever of a hand grenade, preventing its explosion.I woke the other day with this quote floating around in my head ‘When you remove the pin, Mr. Hand Grenade is no longer your friend.’...
- Kerry didn't see an opportunity; he saw a hand grenade with the pin taken out.
- Orr simply walked across the sand, clambered on to one of the tanks, ‘popped’ the pins on his hand grenades and moved over the edge of the hatch.
1.4A hairpin.Pull your hair back and attach the pins vertically on both sides....
- Tuck the ends of your hair under the knot and secure with a bobby pin.
1.5 Music A peg round which one string of a musical instrument is fastened.‘You give people individual notes like the little pins in a musical box’, he chided the composer.
2A metal projection from a plug or an integrated circuit which makes an electrical connection with a socket or another part of a circuit: [as modifier, in combination]: a three-pin plug...
- These pins plug into the circuit board of the product for which the chip is intended.
- The circuit couples the speaker connection of the first pin to the microphone connection of the second pin.
- Through holes are also provided on the board for user expansion via a 96 pin DIN connector.
3 Golf A stick with a flag placed in a hole to mark its position.His third shot out of the sand sees the ball roll 20 feet past the pin but he holes the tricky par putt....
- Can you imagine wanting to play golf without greens, targets, pins, or holes.
- In a round that included three birdies and seven pars, she also claimed near pins on holes eight and fifteen, and the long putt on hole nine.
3.1A skittle in bowling.Wandering among its pillars, I felt like an ant among the pins of a bowling alley: 134 awesome skittles, each more elaborately decorated than the last....
- They have 6 Mexican boys working for the YMCA bowling alley setting pins.
- And this idea is related to the ending of the film, where you see the strings that pull on the pins in the bowling alley.
4 (pins) informal A person’s legs: she was very nimble on her pins...
- Even if you can't sing, can't dance but have a half decent set of pins and can play football, a new reality TV series wants to hear from you.
- If my auld pins were half a century or so younger, I'd give it a go meself.
- For those with THE perfect pins, hemlines from micro short and slim fitting will suit individual tastes.
5 Chess An attack on a piece or pawn which is thereby pinned.In order to differentiate between the White and Black pieces, the Black ones have small pins or pips on the top....
- Black breaks the pin caused by White's dark-squared Bishop while developing a piece and preparing to castle.
- Black still has the pin against the undefended rook on h1, so it becomes a question of whether Black can defend his knight more times than White can attack it.
6British historical A half-firkin cask for beer.The gas (IN) fitting of a pin-lock-style keg has two pins; the beer fitting has three.
verb (pins, pinning, pinned) [with object and adverbial]
1Attach or fasten with a pin or pins: he pinned the badge on to his lapel her hair was pinned back...
- One young woman recalled the way her badges had been pinned to her school blazer; another said she'd never forget Leigh's smile.
- Mikey pins a large decorated badge of Jackie Robinson on the Golem, who smiles.
- Attach and pin the pre-curled hair wefts around the base of the ponytail anchoring to the previously placed bobby pins.
Synonyms
attach, fasten, affix, fix, stick, tack, nail, staple, clip, join, link, secure
2Hold (someone) firmly in a specified position so they are unable to move: she was standing pinned against the door Richards pinned him down until the police arrived...
- Inside a small apartment, Adam was pinned against the door with a hand across his mouth.
- The man, who has not been named, had to be released by firefighters after he was pinned against a fence by the lorry at a Weymouth industrial estate on Wednesday morning.
- Anthon moved so fast, Kiki hardly had time to react and when she did, she was pinned against her car with Anthon's hand at her throat.
Synonyms
hold, restrain, press, pinion, constrain, hold fast, hold down, immobilize
3 [with object] Chess Hinder or prevent (a piece or pawn) from moving because of the danger to a more valuable piece standing behind it along the line of an attack: the black rook on e4 is pinned...
- Since the black queen is pinned to the black king by the white rook, the queen cannot be moved off the e-file.
- White Bishop on e2 is pinned to the White King.
Phrases
(as) clean (or neat) as a new pin
for two pins I'd (or he'd, she'd, etc.) ——
be able to hear a pin drop
pin one's colours to the mast
pin one's ears back
pin one's hopes (or faith) on
Phrasal verbs
pin someone down
pin something down
pin something on
Origin
Late Old English pinn, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch pin 'pin, peg', from Latin pinna 'point, tip, edge'.
Pin is one of the words adopted from Latin by the Anglo-Saxons before they invaded Britain. Its source is Latin pinna ‘feather’, which could also mean ‘point, tip, edge’, and from that developed the sense ‘peg’, the earliest sense of the word in English and still found in mechanics. The sense of pin ‘thin metal fastener’ had developed by 1250. Use of the word to mean ‘skittle’ (as in ninepins) dates from the late 16th century. A pinafore (late 18th century) was originally an apron with a bib pinned afore or on the front of a dress. The pin in pin money was the decorative kind that women used to fasten their hair or clothing. The phrase, dating from the end of the 17th century, first referred to an allowance made to a woman by her husband for personal expenses such as clothing. See also panache, pen
Rhymes
PIN2
/pɪn/(also PIN number)
noun
An identifying number allocated to an individual by a bank or other organization and used for validating electronic transactions.
Origin
1970s: short for personal identification number.