pawn

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Something given as security for a loan; a pledge or guaranty.
• noun The condition of being held as a pledge against the payment of a loan.
• noun A person serving as security; a hostage.
• noun The act of pawning.
• transitive verb To give or deposit (personal property) as security for the payment of money borrowed.
• transitive verb To risk; hazard.
• noun Games A chess piece of lowest value that may move forward one square at a time or two squares in the first move, capture other pieces only on a one-space diagonal forward move, and be promoted to any piece other than a king upon reaching the eighth rank.
• noun A person or an entity used to further the purposes of another.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Something given or deposited as security, as for money borrowed; security; pledge.
• noun A pledge or promise.
• noun A gage; a challenge.
• noun The condition of being pledged or held as security, as for the payment of a debt or the fulfilment of a promise, etc.: as, to be in pawn or at pawn.
• noun A pawnshop; a pawnbroker's establishment.
• noun At pawn, in pawn, pledged; hence, laid away; not available.
• To give or deposit in pledge, or as security for the payment of money borrowed; pledge.
• To pledge for the fulfilment of a promise.
• noun A peacock; in heraldry, a peacock used as a bearing.
• noun Same as pan.
• noun A piece of the lowest rank and value at chess. See chess.
• noun Marked pawn. See marked.
• noun Mast, or similar food for animals. Also spelled pawne.
• To put up as collateral: hypothecate, as stock for a loan.
• noun A gallery.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun See pan, the masticatory.
• transitive verb To give or deposit in pledge, or as security for the payment of money borrowed; to put in pawn; to pledge.
• transitive verb To pledge for the fulfillment of a promise; to stake; to risk; to wager; to hazard.
• noun Anything delivered or deposited as security, as for the payment of money borrowed, or of a debt; a pledge. See pledge, n., 1.
• noun rare State of being pledged; a pledge for the fulfillment of a promise.
• noun Poetic A stake hazarded in a wager.
• noun in the state of being pledged.
• noun a shop where a pawnbroker does business.
• noun a receipt given by the pawnbroker for an article pledged.
• noun (Chess) A man or piece of the lowest rank.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.
• noun An instance of pawning something.
• noun An item given as security on a loan, or as a pledge.
• noun rare A pawn shop, pawnbroker.
• verb To pledge; to stake or wager.
• verb To give as security on a loan of money; especially, to deposit (something) at a pawn shop.
• noun chess The most common chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess each side has eight; moves are only forward, attacks are only forward diagonally or en passant.
• noun colloquial Someone who is being manipulated or used to some end, usually not the end that individual would prefer.
• verb video games To render one's opponent a mere pawn, especially in a real-time strategy games.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an article deposited as security
• noun a person used by another to gain an end
• noun (chess) the least powerful piece; moves only forward and captures only to the side; it can be promoted to a more powerful piece if it reaches the 8th rank
• verb leave as a guarantee in return for money
• noun borrowing and leaving an article as security for repayment of the loan