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pinfold

[pin-fohld]
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noun
  1. a pound for stray animals.
  2. a fold, as for sheep or cattle.
  3. a place of confinement or restraint.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to confine in or as in a pinfold.
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Origin of pinfold

1150–1200; late Middle English pynfold for *pindfold, equivalent to Old English pynd(an) to impound (derivative of pund pound3) + fold2; replacing Middle English po(u)n(d)fold(e), late Old English pundfald
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

crate, pen, jail, enclosure, coop, corral, fold, mew, pound, pinfold

Examples from the Web for pinfold

Historical Examples

  • Who is not sick of our long confinement in that pinfold there?

    Stories from the Iliad

    H. L. Havell

  • Was a bull-calf in a pinfold, an' that too they left behind.

  • It meant no more than inconveniently crowded; thus Milton: Confined and pestered in this pinfold here.

    English Past and Present

    Richard Chevenix Trench

  • Surgeon Pinfold was prescribing for a row of sick people, seated before him on a bench.

    The Fallen Leaves

    Wilkie Collins

  • Amelius went back to the cottage, to see if Toff had returned, in his absence, before he paid his daily visit to Surgeon Pinfold.

    The Fallen Leaves

    Wilkie Collins

British Dictionary definitions for pinfold

pinfold

noun
    1. a pound for stray cattle
    2. a fold or pen for sheep or cattle
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verb
  1. (tr) to gather or confine in or as if in a pinfold
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Word Origin

Old English pundfald, from pound ³ + fold ²
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