putting 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
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
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
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
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