Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of fastening or securing with a pin.
  • noun The masonry that supports studwork.

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

  • verb Present participle of pin.

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

  • noun a mutual promise of a couple not to date anyone else; on college campuses it was once signaled by the giving of a fraternity pin

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He notes the because of the inherent difficulty in pinning down descriptions and categories of sounds,

    Archive 2009-05-01 Ben Abraham 2009

  • He notes the because of the inherent difficulty in pinning down descriptions and categories of sounds,

    Audio Vision, Part 1 Ben Abraham 2009

  • The figures are also hard to work with, pinning is a skill that needs to be mastered …

    Warmachine Mark II « Third Point of Singularity 2010

  • Alas, the size of that market was too tempting for the short-sighted, and in pinning their success to China they bound themselves to an irrational and inconsistent regime and enslaved their business to the whim of a dictator.

    Only Nextel Could Go to China 2009

  • Conceivably, but I find it hard to follow the conventional market watchers in pinning such a sharp decline on a very slightly higher CPI number than expected.

    Latin America 2010

  • (And if I had been allowed a follow up question, I would have succeeded in pinning his hide to the wall.)

    Behe's Test, Take 2 2008

  • He starts by settling in ... pinning back his ears: ponders his surrounding for a few minutes: then gives in to gravity, his head sinks to the ground and he slips into slumber; another busy day in the life of a dog!

    Archive 2007-04-01 Nupur 2007

  • Where I think Horowitz goes wrong is in pinning the problem to academic freedom.

    Horowitz and Academic Freedom Richard Nokes 2006

  • Their salvation and future prosperity lie not in pinning their faith on American aid and aggressive military blocs but in breaking away from her, in repudiating her foreign policy which threatens to drag them into another war, and in proclaiming a policy of peace and friendship with other nations.

    Articles written by Nelson Mandela for Liberation, 1955-59 1959

  • Under English rule the great object of the police is to take the "amok" runner alive, and have him tried like an ordinary criminal for murder; and if he can be brought to bay, as he sometimes is, they succeed in pinning him to the wall by means of such a stout two-pronged fork as I saw kept for the purpose in Malacca.

    The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither Isabella Lucy 1883

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