pinion
1Machinery.
a gear with a small number of teeth, especially one engaging with a rack or larger gear.
a shaft or spindle cut with teeth engaging with a gear.
Metalworking. a gear driving a roll in a rolling mill.
Origin of pinion
1Other words from pinion
- pin·ion·less, adjective
- pin·ion·like, adjective
Other definitions for pinion (2 of 2)
the distal or terminal segment of the wing of a bird consisting of the carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges.
a feather.
the flight feathers collectively.
Chiefly Literary. the wing of a bird.
to cut off the pinion of (a wing) or bind (the wings), as in order to prevent a bird from flying.
to disable or restrain (a bird) in such a manner.
to bind (a person's arms or hands) so they cannot be used.
to disable (someone) in such a manner; shackle.
to bind or hold fast, as to a thing: to be pinioned to one's bad habits.
Origin of pinion
2Other words from pinion
- un·pin·ioned, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use pinion in a sentence
Its horn blared ceaselessly, jammed by the dead body of the driver, Henri Paul, pinioned on the steering column by the impact.
Tina Brown: No, Conspiracy Theorists, Princess Diana Was Not Murdered | Tina Brown | August 19, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTFor one moment Richard pondered whether he could leap into the water, and drift down-stream with his arms pinioned.
God Wills It! | William Stearns DavisIn a moment Billy was pinioned to the floor, and Black Hank was rubbing his abraded fore-arm.
Blazed Trail Stories | Stewart Edward WhiteBut when he stood beneath the cross-arm to be pinioned, his legs played him traitor.
From Place to Place | Irvin S. CobbA hollow murmur ran over the crowd like a wave as the gaol doors swung open and the prisoners appeared, pinioned.
A Frontier Mystery | Bertram Mitford
But The Parrot's big grip closed quietly around his wrist at the last offering and pinioned him and held him helpless.
Where the Pavement Ends | John Russell
British Dictionary definitions for pinion (1 of 2)
/ (ˈpɪnjən) /
mainly poetic a bird's wing
the part of a bird's wing including the flight feathers
to hold or bind (the arms) of (a person) so as to restrain or immobilize him
to confine or shackle
to make (a bird) incapable of flight by removing that part of (the wing) from which the flight feathers grow
Origin of pinion
1British Dictionary definitions for pinion (2 of 2)
/ (ˈpɪnjən) /
a cogwheel that engages with a larger wheel or rack, which it drives or by which it is driven
Origin of pinion
2Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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