Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as piñon.
  • noun A feather; especially, a remex or flight-feather.
  • noun The wing of a bird, or the flight-feathers collectively.
  • noun Technically, in ornithology, the joint of a bird's wing furthest from the body; the distal segment of the wing; the manus, consisting of the carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges, collectively bearing the primary remiges, or largest flight-feathers, and the alula or bastard-wing.
  • noun In entomology, one of various moths: as, the brown-spot pinion, Anchocelis litura.
  • noun [⟨ pinion, verb] A shackle or band for the arm.
  • noun One of two wings or flat projections of any kind.
  • To bind or confine the wings of (a bird); restrain or confine by binding the wings, or by cutting off the pinions; bind or confine (the wings).
  • To bind or confine the arm or arms of (a person) to the body so as to disable or render incapable of resistance; shackle.
  • To bind; attach as by bonds or shackles.
  • noun A small wheel with cogs or teeth which engage the teeth of a larger wheel with cogs or teeth, or sometimes only an arbor or spindle having notches or leaves, which are caught successively by the teeth of the wheel, and the motion thereby communicated. See also cut under pawl-press.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A moth of the genus Lithophane, as Lithophane antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
  • noun A feather; a quill.
  • noun A wing, literal or figurative.
  • noun The joint of bird's wing most remote from the body.
  • noun A fetter for the arm.
  • noun (Mech.) A cogwheel with a small number of teeth, or leaves, adapted to engage with a larger wheel, or rack (see Rack); esp., such a wheel having its leaves formed of the substance of the arbor or spindle which is its axis.
  • noun See under Lantern.
  • noun wire fluted longitudinally, for making the pinions of clocks and watches. It is formed by being drawn through holes of the shape required for the leaves or teeth of the pinions.
  • transitive verb To bind or confine the wings of; to confine by binding the wings.
  • transitive verb To disable by cutting off the pinion joint.
  • transitive verb To disable or restrain, as a person, by binding the arms, esp. by binding the arms to the body.
  • transitive verb Hence, generally, to confine; to bind; to tie up.

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

  • noun A wing.
  • noun The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body
  • noun The outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
  • verb To remove the joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body to prevent the bird from flying.
  • verb To restrain by binding or holding the arms.
  • noun The smallest gear in a gear drive train.

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

  • noun any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird
  • verb bind the arms of
  • verb cut the wings off (of birds)
  • noun a gear with a small number of teeth designed to mesh with a larger wheel or rack
  • noun wing of a bird

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French pignon, from Latin penna ("feather").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French pignon.

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Examples

  • Some manufacturers use the word "gear" for "pinion," so that, in ordering, they call them _gear_ and _pinion_, in speaking of the large and small wheels.

    Practical Mechanics for Boys J. S. Zerbe

  • Translation: the Democratic and Republican foreign policy establishments draw their ideas from the same well, and public opinion for them public pinion is just an insignificant nuisance.

    Matthew Yglesias » The War’s End 2007

  • June 12th, 2007 at 8: 51 pm the Democratic and Republican foreign policy establishments draw their ideas from the same well, and public opinion for them public pinion is just an insignificant nuisance.

    Matthew Yglesias » The War’s End 2007

  • He found some alleviation from self-torment in _David Copperfield_, and he determined to borrow a feather from 'the master's' pinion -- in other words, to place an autobiographical novel to his credit.

    The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories George Gissing 1880

  • A species of wire is made, the section of which resembles a star with from six to twelve rays; this is called pinion wire, and is used by the clockmakers.

    On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures Charles Babbage 1831

  • The "pinion" is the outer rear edge of the wing of a bird.

    Archive 2008-03-01 Belinda 2008

  • The "pinion" is the outer rear edge of the wing of a bird.

    The Ride of My Life Belinda 2008

  • Ñ-- ny, stronger than _ni_ in "pinion," as Niño (child), Caña (cane), El otoño (autumn).

    Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) C. A. Toledano

  • In order to drive the gear, I, at one speed or another, as may be demanded, it is only necessary to apply the pinion, H, to the neck of that secondary pinion which is turning at the appropriate speed and then turn the shell bodily around the axle until the external pinion is carried into engagement with gear I, when the shell is again locked fast.

    Scientific American Supplement No. 822, October 3, 1891 Various

  • "Yas, sar; my 'pinion 'bout dat place, boss, am dat it was dug out."

    The Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond, Early recollections Vivid portrayal of Amusing Scenes Robert Arnold

Comments

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  • A man full of opinions is a man full of pinions.

    November 1, 2007

  • Or maybe just ice-cream:

    scum 'n pinions

    November 1, 2007

  • I like to reply to birds when they tweet at me, "Yes, but that is your personal pinion."

    November 1, 2007

  • Sionnach...yum!

    November 1, 2007

  • Let's face it, scum and caramel go with almost anything.

    September 1, 2008

  • "We usher in the AI future on the wings of angels, because the heavy lifting of the imagination isn’t possible without their pinion feathers – whether we think of them as artificial or divine."

    Source: The most avid believers in artificial intelligence are aggressively secular – yet their language is eerily religious. Why?

    January 22, 2018