pinfold

[pin-fohld]

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noun

a pound for stray animals.

a fold, as for sheep or cattle.

a place of confinement or restraint.

verb (used with object)

to confine in or as in a pinfold.

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. 2019

Related Words for pinfold

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

Examples from the Web for pinfold

Historical Examples of pinfold

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.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105 September 23, 1893
Various
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

a pound for stray cattle
a fold or pen for sheep or cattle

verb

(tr) to gather or confine in or as if in a pinfold

Word Origin for pinfold

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