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• safety pin
  safety pin

  noun

  a pin bent back on itself to form a spring, with a guard to cover the point.
• safety-pin
  safety-pin

  verb (used with object)

  to secure or affix with a safety pin.

safety pin

¹ American  

noun

• safety pins
  plural

1. a pin bent back on itself to form a spring, with a guard to cover the point.

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safety-pin ² American  

[seyf-tee-pin] / ˈseɪf tiˌpɪn /

verb (used with object)

safety-pinned, safety-pinning

1. to secure or affix with a safety pin.

   to safety-pin a child's mittens to his coat sleeve.

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safety pin British  

noun

1. a spring wire clasp with a covering catch, made so as to shield the point when closed and to prevent accidental unfastening

2. another word for pin

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• safety pins
  plural

Etymology

Origin of safety pin¹

First recorded in 1855–60

Origin of safety-pin²

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

safety pin safety-pin safety-pinned

Adding insult to injury, to settle a debt, Hunt sold the 1849 patent rights for something that could have kept his legacy alive: the modern-day safety pin.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026

The clothing items found with her remains included a dark-green sweater with a white safety pin attached to the front, dark-green trousers and a long-sleeved pink sweater.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2023

“My safety pin busted out of my pants, as I was running,” Glasper joked while pulling up his pants on the Microsoft Theater stage after winning the award on Sunday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2023

She was a little alarmed when the doctor pulled out a safety pin and explained that he was going to poke her with it to check her ability to feel pain.

From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2023

There was the litde cloth purse with the safety pin on the chair beneath her clothes and the money just wasn’t nowhere in the room.

From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

She’s finding creative ways to safety-pin them on.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

And on Sunday night in New York, Ms. Versace was at it again, reincarnating the notorious safety-pin gown of 1994.

From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2018

One is by Pamela Love, a safety-pin shape with two pearls, the other a pink marble on a gold chain that I bought from Monoprix for a few euros.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 27, 2017

A girl with spikily chopped hair and a safety-pin earring, a girl who was nonetheless Annagret.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 1, 2015

Then she would safety-pin the card to the front of your shirt, and you’d have to wear it for the rest of the school day.

From "Frindle" by Andrew Clements

He leaned on old ski poles with a blue washcloth safety-pinned to the back of his ball cap.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2025

He kept all his money safety-pinned in a little pocket inside his jacket and was constantly accusing people of having opened it up and stealing his money.

From National Geographic ● Apr. 14, 2018

From Beau Brummell’s commitment to dandyism in 1790s Mayfair to the safety-pinned punks stalking Camden in the 1970s, London has a long history of creating attention-grabbing menswear.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 13, 2015

The safety-pinned recollections of time spent in fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and punk impresario Malcolm McLaren's boutique Sex add texture to the story of punk fashion's beginnings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2014

Plus, we have a sub—a bald guy with legs like kindling sticks and his name safety-pinned to his shirt like a kindergartener whose mom thought he might forget.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko