pawn
/ˈpɔːn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈpoːn/
pawn noun: the state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge. Also the alternative form of paan.
Noun (1)
pawn (countable and uncountable, plural pawns)
- The state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.
- All our jewellery was in pawn by this stage.
- An instance of pawning something.
- Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
- As therefore the morning devv, is a pavvne of the evenings fatneſſe, ſo, O Lord, let this daies comfort be the earneſt of to morrowes, […]1624, John Donne, “19. Prayer”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 508
- An item given as security on a loan, or as a pledge.
- My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thy enemies.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Brokers, takers of pawns, biting userers, I will not admit; yet […] I will tolerate some kind of usery.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
- A pawnshop; pawnbroker.
Verb
pawn (third-person singular simple present pawns, present participle pawning, simple past and past participle pawned)
- To pledge; to stake or wager.
- To give as security on a loan of money; especially, to deposit (something) at a pawn shop.
- A certain, and probably an appreciable, proportion of his so-called money at call and short notice would consist of fortnightly advances made to members of the Stock Exchange against pawned stocks and shares.1904, Henry Warren, The Customer's Guide to Banking, page 7
- But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it, babe.1965, Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
Noun (2)
pawn (plural pawns)
- The most numerous chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess, each side starts with eight; moves are only forward, and attacks are only diagonally or en passant.
- The pawn may move forward to the square immediately in front of it on the same file, provided that this square is unoccupied […] Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2025, pages 5, 21
- A person being manipulated by another, being used to some end.
- Near-synonym: chess piece
- Though a pawn of the gods, her departure is the precipitating cause of the Trojan War.
- Synonyms:
- chess piece
Noun (3)
pawn (plural pawns)
- A gallery.
Also used as
pawn is also the alternative form of paan.
pawn is also the alternative spelling of pwn.
pawn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
pawn in Hindi
- chess piece
- प्यादा pyādā, पियादा piyādā, सिपाही sipāhī
pawn in Tamil
- chess piece
- சிப்பாய் cippāy, காலாள் kālāḷ
pawn in Urdu
- chess piece
- پیاده pyāda
pawn in Bengali
- chess piece
- বোড়ে bōṛe
More languagesFewer languages
- pawn in Telugu
- బంటు
- pawn in Kannada
- ಗಿರವಿ
- pawn in Gujarati
- પ્યાદુ, પ્યાદાની, પૉન કરવા માટે
- pawn in Nepali
- सिपाही sipāhī
- pawn in Tagalog
- piyon
- pawn in Arabic
- جُنْدِيّ jundiyy, بَيْدَق baydaq, بيذق bayḏaq
- pawn in Malay
- bidak, pion, piadah
- pawn in Indonesian
- bidak, pion
- pawn in Persian
- سرباز sarbâz, پیاده piyâde
- pawn in Thai
- เบี้ย bîia
- pawn in Vietnamese
- cầm đồ, tốt, chốt
- pawn in Myanmar
- နယ် nai
Examples of pawn in a sentence
- He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.
- You want to bring the rook and then start pushing your pawns.
- In this standard opening position White has to be careful because the pawn on e4 hangs.
Synonyms of pawn
Forms of pawn
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pawns |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pawns |
| present participle | pawning |
| past participle | pawned |
| past | pawned |
Origin of pawn
From Middle English paun, pawyn, pawnd, from Old French pan, pant (“pledge for a payment”), from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *pand (“deposit, security, pledge”), further origin uncertain. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pound (“deposit, pledge, pawn”), West Frisian pân (“pawn”), Dutch pand (“pledge, pawn”), German Low German Pand (“deposit, pledge, pawn”), German Pfand (“deposit, pledge, pawn”), Swedish pant (“pledge, pawn”), Faroese pantur (“security, lien”), Icelandic pantur (“pledge, security, pawn”).
From Middle English pown, from Anglo-Norman poun, paun (“footman”), from Late Latin pedōnem (“pedestrian”), derived from Latin ped- (“foot”). Doublet of peon.
Words formed from pawn
- impawn
- pawnbroker
- pawnee
- pawner
- pawning
- pawnshop
- pawnticket
- pawnable
- pawnage
- pawn off as
- pawn upon
- repawn
- unpawn
- unpawned
- advanced pawn
- backward pawn
- bishop's pawn
- centipawn
- central pawn
- connected pawn
- doubled pawn
- hexapawn
- isolated pawn
- king's bishop's pawn
- king's knight's pawn
- king's pawn
- king's rook's pawn
- knight's pawn
- millipawn
- octopawn
- outside passed pawn
- passed pawn
- pawn break
- pawn chain
- pawn cube
- pawn grabbing
- pawn island
- pawnless
- pawnlike
- pawn race
- pawn storm
- poisoned pawn
- poison pawn
- queen's bishop's pawn
- queen's knight's pawn
- queen's pawn
- queen's rook's pawn
- remote passed pawn
- rook's pawn
- tall pawn
- tripled pawn
- wrong rook pawn
Phrases with pawn
- pawn shop
- pawn cubes
- pawn races
- pawn shops
- pawn breaks
- pawn chains
- pawn storms
- pawn islands
- King's Pawn Game
- King's Pawn Games
- Queen's Pawn Game
- King's Pawn Opening
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with pawn
Questions about pawn
- What does pawn mean?
- Pawn means the state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.
- What is pawn in Hindi?
- Pawn in Hindi is प्यादा (pyādā), पियादा (piyādā), सिपाही (sipāhī). See Pawn meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pawn?
- Pawn can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pawn?
- Pawn is pronounced /ˈpɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pawn?
- The plural of pawn is pawns.
Words near pawn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pawn (page history and authors); pawn (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pawn (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pawn (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pawn.wav.
Cite this entry: “pawn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.