hinge
/ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/
hinge noun: a jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
Noun
hinge (plural hinges)
- A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
- The massy portals of the churches swung creaking on their hinges; and some lay dead on the pavement.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- har
- A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.
- The pedicel of the pollinium is articulated as before by a hinge to the disc; it can move freely only in one direction owing to one end of the disc being upturned.1862, Charles Darwin, The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids Are Fertilized by Insects
- A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
- A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.
- This argument was the hinge on which the question turned.
- But let me say, with all deference, that these positions do not appear to me to touch the hinge of the argument before us.1840, Adam Duncan Tait, Remarks on a Pamphlet by the Reverend James Buchanan, page 26
- The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
- One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.
- If when the Moon is in the Hinge at East, / The Birth breaks forward from its native rest; / Full Eighty Years, if you two Years abate, / This Station gives, and long defers its Fate1697, Thomas Creech, The five books of Mr. Manilius containing a system of the ancient astronomy and astrology: together with the philosophy of the Stoicks, page 121
- In ruine reconcil'd: nor slept the winds / Within thir stony caves, but rush'd abroad / From the four hinges of the world, and fell1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 100
- A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
- In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not connected to each other.
- Synonyms:
- swing
- To be in poor health; to be out of sorts.
Verb
hinge (third-person singular simple present hinges, present participle hinging or (uncommon) hingeing, simple past and past participle hinged)
- To attach by, or equip with a hinge.
- To depend on something.
- Games can hinge on the sort of controversial decision made by Taylor in the 10th minute. After Rivière collected Gabriel Obertan’s pass and sashayed beyond Daley Blind he drew the United centre-half into a rash, clumsy challenge but, puzzlingly, Taylor detected no penalty.2015 March 4, Louise Taylor, The Guardian
- The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.
- The flake hinged at an inclusion in the core.
- To bend.
- Be thou a Flatterer now, and ſeeke to thriue / By that which ha's^([sic – meaning has]) vndone thee; hindge thy knee, / And let his very breath whom thou'lt obſerue / Blow off thy Cap: [...]c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To move or already be positioned in such a fashion that it presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
- Synonyms:
- swing
Proper noun capitalized: Hinge
Hinge (plural Hinges)
- A surname.
hinge meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hinge in Hindi
- device for the pivoting of a door
- चूल cūl, कुलाबा kulābā, द्वारसन्धि dvārsandhi
hinge in Tamil
- பிணைச்சல், கதவுக்கீல், சார்ந்திருத்தல், கீல் பொருத்து, சார்ந்திரு
hinge in Urdu
- hinge
- قبضہ qabza
hinge in Bengali
- কব্জা, কব্জার মতো সংযোগস্থল, কোনো কিছুর মূল ভিত্তি
More languagesFewer languages
- hinge in Malayalam
- വിജാഗിരി vijāgiri, ചുഴി cuḻi
- hinge in Kannada
- ತಿರುಗಣೆ, ಕೀಲು, ಕೀಲಚ್ಚು, ಕೇಂದ್ರ ತತ್ವ
- hinge in Gujarati
- મિજાગરું mijāgarũ
- hinge in Tagalog
- bisagra
- hinge in Arabic
- مِقْبَض miqbaḍ
- hinge in Malay
- engsel
- hinge in Indonesian
- engsel
- hinge in Persian
- لولا lowlâ
- hinge in Thai
- บานพับ baan-páp
- hinge in Vietnamese
- bản lề
Examples of hinge in a sentence
- A crusty sound came from the rusted hinges of the gate.
- The squeaking won’t do any harm, but if it makes your teeth itch, oil the hinge.
- An argument hinges upon entailment whereas an if-then sentence hinges upon implication.
Synonyms of hinge
Forms of hinge
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hinges |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hinges |
| present participle | hinging |
| present participle uncommon | hingeing |
| past participle | hinged |
| past | hinged |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Hinges |
Origin of hinge
From Middle English henge (“hinge”), from Old English *henġ or *henġe (“hinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju or *hangī; compare Old English *henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”). Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Low German henge (“hook, hinge, handle”), Dutch heng (“moving leaf of a hinge”), Dutch geheng (“hinge”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), hengsel (“handle”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), Henkel (“handle, hook”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), Faroese hongsl (“hinge”), Icelandic hengsli (“hinge”), Norwegian hengsel (“hinge”), Swedish hängsle (“suspender”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), Old English hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.
Words formed from hinge
- alpha hinge
- butt hinge
- delta hinge
- door hinge
- flapping hinge
- H hinge
- hingeable
- hingeback
- hinge-back tortoise
- hinge joint
- hingeless
- hingelike
- hinge line
- hingeline
- hinge of Africa
- hinge on
- hinger
- hinge termination
- hingewise
- jonbar hinge
- living hinge
- lower hinge
- midhinge
- off one's hinge
- rehinge
- unhinge
- upper hinge
- hinge upon
- hingey
Phrases with hinge
Words that rhyme with hinge
Questions about hinge
- What does hinge mean?
- Hinge means a jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
- What is hinge in Hindi?
- Hinge in Hindi is चूल (cūl), कुलाबा (kulābā), द्वारसन्धि (dvārsandhi). See Hinge meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hinge?
- Hinge can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hinge?
- Hinge is pronounced /ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/.
- What is the plural of hinge?
- The plural of hinge is hinges.
Words near hinge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hinge (page history and authors); Hinge (page history and authors); hinge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); قبضہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); Hinge (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ചുഴി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); hinge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); મિજાગરું (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hinge.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hinge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hinge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.