Word.ws English Dictionary

pinning

/ˈpɪnɪŋ/

pinning is the present participle and gerund of pin.

Noun

pinning (countable and uncountable, plural pinnings)

  1. The action of the verb pin in any sense.
  2. A ceremony in which a pin badge is given.
    • There were a variety of informal traditional activities that occurred in recognition of events such as birthdays, pinnings (when a member gave his fraternity pin to his girlfriend to acknowledge preengagement), and engagements.2003, James A. Schnell, Case Studies in Culture and Communication: A Group Perspective
  3. The establishment of the definite quantum state of a particle, or of the occupation number of a system of particles

Meaning of pin

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.
    Antonyms:
    unpin

See all 34 meanings of pin

Forms of pinning

pluralpinnings

Words formed from pinning

Phrases with pinning

Words that rhyme with pinning

Questions about pinning

What does pinning mean?
Pinning means the action of the verb pin in any sense.
What is pinning the present participle and gerund of?
Pinning is the present participle and gerund of pin.
What part of speech is pinning?
Pinning is a noun.
How do you pronounce pinning?
Pinning is pronounced /ˈpɪnɪŋ/.
What is the plural of pinning?
The plural of pinning is pinnings.

Words near pinning in the dictionary

  1. pinnigerous
  2. pinnigrade
  3. pinnigrades
  4. pinninervate
  5. pinninerved
  6. pinning
  7. pinning back
  8. pinning back one's ears
  9. pinning down
  10. pinning on
  11. pinning one's ears back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pinning (page history and authors); pin (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pinning.wav.

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