Word.ws English Dictionary

pin

UK/pɪn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/pən/

pin noun: a needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening. Also the alternative form of peen.

pin: a needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other...
Image: Tomasz Sienicki, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

pin (plural pins)

  1. A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
    • 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...
  2. A small nail with a head and a sharp point.
    Synonyms:
    nail, tack
  3. A cylindrical piece of solid material, often of wood or metal, used to fasten or as a bearing between two parts.
    • Pull the pin out of the grenade before throwing it at the enemy.
    Synonyms:
    peg
  4. The victory condition of holding the opponent's shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.
  5. A slender object specially designed for use in a specific game or sport, such as skittles or bowling.
  6. (in plural, informal) A leg.
    • I'm not so good on my pins these days.
  7. Any of the individual connecting elements of a multipole electrical connector.
    • The UK standard connector for domestic mains electricity has three pins.
  8. A piece of jewellery that is attached to clothing with a pin.
    Synonyms:
    brooch
  9. (US) A simple accessory that can be attached to clothing with a pin or fastener, often round and bearing a design, logo or message, and used for decoration, identification or to show political affiliation, etc.
    Synonyms:
    lapel pin, badge
  10. Either a scenario in which moving a lesser piece to escape from attack would expose a more valuable piece to being taken instead, or one where moving a piece is impossible as it would place the king in check.
  11. The flagstick: the flag-bearing pole which marks the location of a hole
  12. The spot at the exact centre of the house (the target area)
    • The shot landed right on the pin.
Show 12 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The spot at the exact centre of the target, originally a literal pin that fastened the target in place.
    • 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...
    • the very pin of his heart cleftc. 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...
  2. (obsolete) A mood, a state of being.
    • 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...
    • he had made the sign of the Cross on his head; for he was then on a merry pin and full of jearing1653, 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
  3. One of a row of pegs in the side of an ancient drinking cup to mark how much each person should drink.
  4. (obsolete) Caligo.
    • Blind with the pin and webc. 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...
  5. A thing of small value; a trifle.
    • 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...
  6. A peg in musical instruments for increasing or relaxing the tension of the strings.
  7. A short shaft, sometimes forming a bolt, a part of which serves as a journal.
  8. The tenon of a dovetail joint.
  9. (UK) A size of brewery cask, equal to half a firkin, or eighth of a barrel.
    • 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=
  10. (informal) A pinball machine.
    • 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
  11. A small cylindrical object which blocks the rotation of a pin-tumbler lock when the incorrect key is inserted.
  12. (slang) An injection of PEDs.

Verb

pin (third-person singular simple present pins, present participle pinning, simple past and past participle pinned)

  1. (often) To fasten or attach (something) with a pin.
  2. (usually passive voice) To cause (a piece) to be in a pin.
  3. To pin down (someone).
    • He pinned his opponent on the mat.
  4. To enclose; to confine; to pen; to pound.
  5. (transitive) To attach (an icon, application, message etc.) to another item so that it persists.
    • to pin a folder to the taskbar
    Antonyms:
    unpin
  6. (transitive) To fix (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it cannot be modified.
    • When marshaling data, the interop marshaler can copy or pin the data being marshaled.
    • […] you can use the GCHandle class mentioned earlier to pin a heap block until you explicitly unpin it.2012, Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 5.0, page 244
    Antonyms:
    unpin
  7. (transitive) To cause an analog gauge to reach the stop pin at the high end of the range.
    • Now I need to pin those needles.1979, Al Greenwood, Lou Gramm, “Rev on the Red Line”, in Head Games
    Synonyms:
    peg
  8. (ambitransitive, slang) To inject for performance enhancement.
  9. To move a piece onto a blot, preventing the piece from further movement.

Noun (2)

pin (plural pins)

  1. A cataract of the eye.

Noun (3) capitalized: PIN

PIN (plural PINs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of personal identification number.

Noun (4) capitalized: PIN

PIN (plural PINs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of preferred IUPAC name.

Also used as

pin is also the alternative form of peen.

pin meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pin in Hindi

needle without an eye, used for fastening
पिन pin

pin in Tamil

needle without an eye, used for fastening
குண்டூசி kuṇṭūci

pin in Marathi

पिन, पिन करणे, पिन करण्यासाठी

pin in Urdu

پن, پن کریں, پننگ کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
pin in Bengali
পিন, পিনের, পিন করা
pin in Telugu
గుండుసూది guṇḍusūdi, పావు pāvu
pin in Malayalam
പിൻ, പിൻ്റ്, പിൻ ചെയ്യാൻ
pin in Kannada
ಪಿನ್, ಪಿನ್ನು, ಪಿನ್ ಮಾಡಲು
pin in Punjabi
ਪਿੰਨ, ਪਿੰਨ ਕਰਨਾ, ਪਿੰਨ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
pin in Gujarati
પિન pin
pin in Odia
ପିନ୍, ପିନ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ପିନ
pin in Nepali
पिन, पिन गर्ने, पिन गर्न
pin in Tagalog
aspili, aspile, bulilyo
pin in Arabic
دَبُّوس dabbūs
pin in Malay
cemat
pin in Indonesian
jarum pentol
pin in Persian
سنجاق sanjâq, آچمز âčmaz
pin in Thai
เข็มหมุด kěm-mùt, เข็ม kěm
pin in Vietnamese
ghim, đinh ghim, ki
pin in Myanmar
ပင်အပ် pang-ap

Examples of pin in a sentence

  • He got him in a tight hold and pinned him to the mat.
  • The balloon will pop when I stick this pin in it.
  • I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.

All 40 example sentences with pin

Synonyms of pin

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of pin

Forms of pin

Noun
pluralpins
pluralPINs
alternative formPIN number
Verb
third-person singular presentpins
present participlepinning
past participlepinned
pastpinned

Past tense of pin: pinned

Plural of pin: pins

Origin of pin

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”). 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. 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).

Words formed from pin

Phrases with pin

72 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pin

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pin

What does pin mean?
Pin means a needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening.
What is pin in Hindi?
Pin in Hindi is पिन (pin). See Pin meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pin?
Pin can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pin?
Pin is pronounced /pɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of pin?
The plural of pin is pins.

Words near pin in the dictionary

  1. pimpy
  2. PIMS
  3. PIMS-TS
  4. Pimsleur
  5. PIMU
  6. pin
  7. pin a rose on your nose
  8. pin and web
  9. pin back
  10. pin back one's ears
  11. pin bagatelle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pin (page history and authors); PIN (page history and authors); pin (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pin (Nepali, 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: En-ca-pin.ogg, En-us-pin.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.