PIN

Definitions

1. 1. A piece of wood, metal, etc., generally cylindrical, used for fastening separate articles together, or as a support by which one article may be suspended from another; a peg; a bolt. With pins of adamant And chains they made all fast. Milton.
2. 2. Especially, a small, pointed and headed piece of brass or other wire (commonly tinned), largely used for fastening clothes, attaching papers, etc.
3. 3. Hence, a thing of small value; a trifle. He . . . did not care a pin for her. Spectator.
4. 4. That which resembles a pin in its form or use; as:
5. 5. A peg in musical instruments, for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.
6. 6. A linchpin.
7. 7. A rolling-pin.
8. 8. A clothespin.
9. 9. One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each man should drink.
10. 10. The bull's eye, or center, of a target; hence, the center. [Obs.] "The very pin of his heart cleft." Shak.
11. 11. Mood; humor. [Obs.] "In merry pin." Cowper.
12. 12. Caligo. See Caligo. Shak.
13. 13. An ornament, as a brooch or badge, fastened to the clothing by a pin; as, a Masonic pin.
14. 14. The leg; as, to knock one off his pins. [Slang] Banking pin (Horol.), a pin against which a lever strikes, to limit its motion. -- Pin drill (Mech.), a drill with a central pin or projection to enter a hole, for enlarging the hole, or for sinking a recess for the head of a bolt, etc.; a counterbore. -- Pin grass. (Bot.) See Alfilaria. -- Pin hole, a small hole made by a pin; hence, any very small aperture or perforation. -- Pin lock, a lock having a cylindrical bolt; a lock in which pins, arranged by the key, are used instead of tumblers. -- Pin money, an allowance of money, as that made by a husband to his wife, for private and personal expenditure. -- Pin rail (Naut.), a rail, usually within the bulwarks, to hold belaying pins. Sometimes applied to the fife rail. Called also pin rack. -- Pin wheel. (a) A contrate wheel in which the cogs are cylindrical pins. (b) (Fireworks) A small coil which revolves on a common pin and makes a wheel of yellow or colored fire.