a spring wire clasp with a covering catch, made so as to shield the point when closed and to prevent accidental unfastening
another word for pin
First recorded in 1855–60
First recorded in 1915–20
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
“But all the negotiation channels or mechanisms that North and South Korea had for preventing escalation or misunderstandings are gone. The safety pin has been pulled out.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2024
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
The next day, Ms Shergill swapped her flat shoes with stilettos and boarded the bus, armed with a safety pin.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2023
With a big piece of cloth and a safety pin, my writing arm hangs in a sling.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The dozens of outfits to come hewed to the same concept — women in baby-themed dresses and suits, adorned with safety-pin earrings or teething rings, with whimsical matching handbags and gloves.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2021
There were reduxes of the famous spring 1994 safety-pin dress collection, and the candy-colored PVC Mod dresses of fall 1994, here, shown with clunky sneakers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2018
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
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
Name tags — which my mother remembered as the sort that came with a string to tie on your suitcase — were safety-pinned to their jackets.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2018
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
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
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.
