pin

With pins of adamant / And chains they made all fast.

1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

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.

A small nail with a head and a sharp point.

Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.

A cylinder often of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(wrestling, professional wrestling) The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.

A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.

I'm not so good on my pins these days.

The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.

(electricity) Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.

A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.

(US) 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.

(chess) 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.

(golf) The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole

The shot landed right on the pin.

(curling) The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)

For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,
Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:

the very pin of his heart cleft

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

(archery) The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.

Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […]

c. 1631–1633 (first performance), [John Clavell], edited by John Henry Pyle Pafford and W[alter] W[ilson] Greg, The Soddered Citizen (The Malone Society Reprints; 82), London: […] [F]or the Malone Society by John Johnson at the Oxford University Press, published 1936, →OCLC, Act II, scene v, folio 14ᵃ, page 45, lines 1030–1032:

he had made the sign of the Cross on his head; for he was then on a merry pin and full of jearing

1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:

One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.

Blind with the pin and web

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

He […] did not care a pin for her.

1712 February 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, February 7, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 295; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.

(engineering) A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.

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.

1978, Hugh Verity, chapter 2, in We landed by moonlight, Manchester: Crécy Publishing, →ISBN, page 22=:

(UK, brewing) A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.

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.

(locksmithing) A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.

(bodybuilding, slang) An injection of PEDs.

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: pins

→ Polish: pin

→ Spanish: pin

→ Swahili: pini

→ Swedish: pin, pins

speld

needle without an eye, used for fastening

щифт

cylinder of wood or metal used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts

кегла

slender object specially designed for use in bowling

краче

electricity: any of the individual connecting elements of a multi-pole electrical connector

значка

US: accessory attached with a pin; lapel pin

nänni

curling: spot at the exact centre of the house

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).


pin

(often followed by a preposition such as "to" or "on") To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.

(chess, usually passive voice) To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.

He pinned his opponent on the mat.

To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.

to pin a folder to the taskbar

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface, transitive) To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.

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.

2012, Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 5.0, page 244:

(programming, transitive) To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.

Now I need to pin those needles.

1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games:

(transitive) To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.

(bodybuilding, slang, ambitransitive) To inject for performance enhancement.

(backgammon) To move a piece onto a blot, preventing the piece from further movement.

en-verb

pin (third-person singular simple present pins, present participle pinning, simple past and past participle pinned)

pins (present singular third-person)
pinning (participle present)
pinned (participle past)
pinned (past)