Definitions

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

  • noun A pin or a bolt on which another part pivots.
  • noun Nautical The pin on which a rudder turns.
  • noun The pin on which a gun carriage revolves.
  • noun A hook or a bolt on the rear of a towing vehicle for attaching a gun or trailer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pin upon which anything revolves, or which holds two things together while one or both are free to move in a certain way.
  • noun The penis.

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

  • noun A little pin.
  • noun (Mech.) An upright pivot pin.
  • noun The pivot pin of a hinge.
  • noun A hook or pin on which a rudder hangs and turns.
  • noun A pivot about which the chassis swings, in some kinds of gun carriages.
  • noun A kingbolt of a wagon.

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

  • noun now dialectal The penis.
  • noun A pin or bolt, usually vertical, which acts as a pivot for a hinge or a rudder.
  • noun gunnery An iron pin used to control recoil of a cannon or around which a gun carriage revolves.

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

  • noun a pin or bolt forming the pivot of a hinge

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pintel, penis, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pintil, from Old English pintel ("penis"), from Proto-Germanic *pint- (“protusion”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“peg, tip, protruding point, edge”), equivalent to pin +‎ -le. Cognate with Middle Low German pint ("male member, penis"), West Flemish pint ("tip"), Norwegian dialectal pintol ("penis"). More at pin, pen.

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Examples

  • The parts of the hinges are called the pintle (the pin) and gudgeon (the opening into which the pin fits).

    Sailing Fundamentals Gary Jobson 1998

  • The parts of the hinges are called the pintle (the pin) and gudgeon (the opening into which the pin fits).

    Sailing Fundamentals Gary Jobson 1998

  • Many such muskets come with a inherent pintle mount so that they can be braced while standing; it requires a move action to set up the pintle.

    Firearms for Pathfinder « Geek Related 2009

  • I found fat pintle shoots poking through dead leaves, fiddleheads in bracken beds, and lily bulbs.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • I ate ramps and spinach and pintle shoots and fiddleheads, everything green and full of life.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • Or isnt a Westland Wessex with pintle mounted GPMGs aeither a "helicopter" or a "gunship" in your book?

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • Or isnt a Westland Wessex with pintle mounted GPMGs aeither a "helicopter" or a "gunship" in your book?

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • I ate ramps and spinach and pintle shoots and fiddleheads, everything green and full of life.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • I ate ramps and spinach and pintle shoots and fiddleheads, everything green and full of life.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • I found fat pintle shoots poking through dead leaves, fiddleheads in bracken beds, and lily bulbs.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

Comments

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  • A pin or a bolt on which another part pivots, such as the pin on which a rudder turns, the pin on which a gun carriage revolves, or the bolt on a towing vehicle for attaching a trailer.

    Go on, check out the etymology. You know you want to.

    March 2, 2007

  • see, and I always thought this was a ship - you know - the ninle, the pintle and the santle maria

    March 2, 2007

  • Yes, yes, sionnach. I had that problem too. ;-)

    March 2, 2007

  • "'...gaff enough to spread a tolerable mizen. Enough, at all events, to sail with the wind ahead at a moderate pace without straining the rudder right off its pintles; and if it ain't elegant, why, be damned to elegance.'

    'What are pintles?'

    'Those right-angled pieces in the front of the rudder that hook into rings or braces as we say at the back of the stern-post so that the rudder can swing like a door on its hinges.'"

    --P. O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 251

    March 16, 2008

  • Interesting that the Word of the Day version of this page doesn't include the etymology or all the meanings.

    May 13, 2022

  • Surely time for a Wordle ripoff which-pint-is-that game.

    May 15, 2022