pin – English noun declension

English noun forms of pin

Noun: pin
Singularpin
Pluralpins

Sample Sentences

  • With pins of adamant / And chains they made all fast. [1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
  • Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.
  • I'm not so good on my pins these days.
  • The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.
  • The shot landed right on the pin.
  • For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,
  • Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue. [c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:]
  • the very pin of his heart cleft [c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:]
  • Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […] [c. 1631–1633 (first performance), [John Clavell], edited by John Henry Pyle Pafford and W[alter] W[ilson] Greg, The Soddered Citizen (The Malone Society Reprints; 82), London: […] [F]or the Malone Society by John Johnson at the Oxford University Press, published 1936, →OCLC, Act II, scene v, folio 14ᵃ, page 45, lines 1030–1032:]
  • he had made the sign of the Cross on his head; for he was then on a merry pin and full of jearing [1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:]
  • Blind with the pin and web [c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:]
  • He […] did not care a pin for her. [1712 February 17 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, February 7, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 295; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:]
  • Our ground crew were lodged in the main station, but they came to the cottage for a party when operations for the night had been cancelled and we had a new ‘gong’ (decoration) to celebrate. On these occasions we always installed a pin of bitter. [1978, Hugh Verity, chapter 2, in We landed by moonlight, Manchester: Crécy Publishing, →ISBN, page 22=:]
  • I spent most of my time in the arcade playing pins.
  • Attracted by game operation, many invested heavily in pins and rolldowns prior to last spring. [1949, Billboard, volume 61, page 82:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Germanic *pinnaz
3. Proto-West Germanic *pinn
4. Old English pinn
5. Middle English pinne
6. English pin
7. From Middle English pinne, from Old English pinn (“pin, peg, bolt”), from Proto-Germanic *pinnaz, *pinnō, *pint- (“protruding point, peak, peg, pin, nail”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“protruding object, pointed peg, nail, edge”). Related to pen (“enclosure”).
8. Cognate with Dutch pin (“peg, pin”), Low German pin, pinne (“pin, point, nail, peg”), German Pinn, Pinne (“pin, tack, peg”), Bavarian Pfonzer, Pfunzer (“sharpened point”), Danish pind (“pin, pointed stick”), Norwegian pinn (“stick”), Swedish pinne (“peg, rod, stick”), Icelandic pinni (“pin”). More at pintle.
9. No relation to classical Latin pinna (“fin, flipper, wing-like appendage, wing, feather”), which was extended to mean "ridge, peak, point" (compare pinnacle), and often confused with Latin penna (“wing, feather”). More at feather and pen (Etymology 3). See: Middle English Nouns 'pinne', Old English Nouns 'pinn', Dutch Nouns 'pin', Danish Nouns 'pind', Swedish Nouns 'pinne', Icelandic Nouns 'pinni', Latin Nouns 'pinna', Latin Nouns 'penna'.

Verbs referencing "pin"

Catalan Nouns pin, Dutch Nouns pin, Polish Nouns pin, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns pinne, Swedish Nouns pinne, Finnish Nouns pinssi, Icelandic Nouns pinni, German Nouns Pin.