pin

noun

• 1a thin piece of metal with a sharp point at one end and a round head at the other, used especially for fastening pieces of cloth.
• a small brooch or badge.
• Medicine a steel rod used to join the ends of fractured bones while they heal.
• a metal peg that holds down the activating lever of a hand grenade, preventing its explosion.
• short for hairpin.
• Music a peg around which one string of a musical instrument is fastened.

• 2a short piece of wood or metal for various purposes, in particular.
• (in bowling) one of a set of bottle-shaped wooden pieces that are arranged in an upright position at the end of a lane in order to be toppled by a rolling ball.
• a metal projection from a plug or an integrated circuit that makes an electrical connection with a socket or another part of a circuit.
• Golf a stick with a flag placed in a hole to mark the hole’s position.

• 3 (pins) informal legs:she was very nimble on her pins

• 4 Chess an attack on a piece or pawn, which is thereby pinned:the pin of the black queen by the white rook

• 5British historical a half-firkin cask for beer.

verb (pins, pinning, pinned)

• attach or fasten with a pin or pins in a specified position:her hair was pinned back pin a note on the door
• (pin something on) fix blame or responsibility for something on (someone):don’t pin the blame on me
• hold someone firmly in a specified position so they are unable to move:she was standing pinned against the door
• Chess hinder or prevent (a piece or pawn) from moving because of the danger to a more valuable piece standing behind it along the line of an attack.