pinfold
Americannoun
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a pound for stray animals.
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a fold, as for sheep or cattle.
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a place of confinement or restraint.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of pinfold
1150–1200; late Middle English pynfold for *pindfold, equivalent to Old English pynd ( an ) to impound (derivative of pund pound 3 ) + fold 2; replacing Middle English po ( u ) n ( d ) fold ( e ), late Old English pundfald
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Oaths were not purpos'd, more than law, To keep the good and just in awe, But to confine the bad and sinful, Like moral cattle, in a pinfold.
From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various
Another official surname especially connected with country life is Pinder, also found as Pinner, Pender, Penner, Ponder and Poynder, the man in charge of the pound or pinfold; cf.
From The Romance of Names by Weekley, Ernest
The chapel has been long considered as common ground, my dear, and used for a pinfold, and what objection can we have to the man for employing what is his own to his own profit?
From My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Scott, Walter, Sir
Why, they must have been fairly starved on purpose; nay, they must have been in the pinfold all the time he had been laid up.
From Stories of Comedy by Johnson, Rossiter
Its earlier meaning is to hamper or entangle— "Confined and pestered in this pinfold here."
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
