put a pin in

Verb

put a pin in (third-person singular simple present puts a pin in, present participle putting a pin in, simple past and past participle put a pin in)

1. To discredit or ridicule; to deflate someone or something that is pompous or overly esteemed.
   • Another has heard the Thomas orchestra play the overture, or remembers how well the orchestra under Mancinelli came out with the fine touches of the music, and this one puts a pin in the orchestra. The music critic, that microcosm of the tonal world, has heard all these things, and he puts a pin in...1897 December, “Editorial: Bric-A-Brac”, in Music, volume 13, page 218
   • On the other hand, the lecture which puts a pin in professional egos and provokes opposition, may well turn out to carry the seed to future professional growth.1973, Andreas Fuglesang, The Story of a Seminar in Applied Communication, page 12
2. To mark well; bear in mind.
   • I am no upholder of party cries at electioneering times, but nevertheless I would advise all our readers to put a pin in that lot.1885 July 4, The Freeman's Journal, Sydney, page 14, column 3
   • The people who must save this old world, if it is ever saved, are those who are most interested in it and comprise 90 per cent of the population of earth — the working class. You can put a pin in this.1916 August 31, The Worker, Brisbane, page 7, column 1
3. To make something certain; to nail down.
   • Every time he seemed to have a notion of what, why and when, whenever he seemed to be able to put a pin in that ever elusive cause, that ghost that was to blame, whoever it belonged to it would suddenly and without warning disappear.2012, Aaron Doolittle, Twenty-Nine, page 132
   • As Boyce wrote: I could sense that there was some expectation that [the Opening Ceremony] would put a pin in the national identity, that we would have to decide — is Britain rural or urban, ancient or modern, riot or clean-up, roundhead or cavalier, multi-cultural or divided?2015, Paul Prescott, Erin Sullivan, Shakespeare on the Global Stage, page 22
4. To postpone; to stop focusing or working on (something) until it can be finished at a later time.
   • “Remember that gay unsub in Santa Monica who killed boys on their twenty-first birthdays? He brought them home, sat them up at his dinner table, and served the corpses birthday cake.” “Okay, let's put a pin in that for a minute. We don't know why he actually cooked a Cajun dinner, but let's assume...2011, Stephen J. Cannell, Vigilante
   • As long as I'm on this subject, let me put a pin in the narrative for another few lines so I can close out the story of my undergraduate career, which by now had been dragging on for way longer than necessary.2011, Christine O'Donnell, Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, page 116
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, pin, in.
   • A woman makes a wax man, puts a pin in its chest; and the man dies.1949, Eugène Jolas, Transition Workshop, page 156
   • They're going to put a pin in my femur.2005, Keith Dixon, Ghostfires