ninepins

[nahyn-pinz]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ninepins ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

(used with a singular verb) tenpins played without the head pin.

ninepin, a pin used in this game.

Origin of ninepins

1570–80; nine + pins

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for ninepins

skittles, candlepins, kegling

Examples from the Web for ninepins

Historical Examples of ninepins

Treat men as pawns and ninepins and you shall suffer as well as they.
Essays, First Series
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Margaret hunted about in the attic, and found a box of ninepins.
Margaret Montfort
Laura E. Richards
Peter was silently appointed to set up the ninepins for them.
Folk-lore and Legends: German
Anonymous
The Indians fell like ninepins, but there were always more to come on.
The Watchers of the Plains
Ridgewell Cullum
Had any one had the courage to do so, they would have gone down like a row of ninepins.
The Cock-House at Fellsgarth
Talbot Baines Reed

British Dictionary definitions for ninepins

ninepins

noun

(functioning as singular) another name for skittlesSee skittle (def. 2)

(singular) one of the pins used in this game

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ninepins

1570s, from nine + pin (n.). From the number of pins to be knocked down.