Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use pawn in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Pawn means the state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge. Example: “All our jewellery was in pawn by this stage.”

Examples of pawn by meaning

nounThe state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.

  • All our jewellery was in pawn by this stage.

verbTo 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

nounA person being manipulated by another, being used to some end.

  • Though a pawn of the gods, her departure is the precipitating cause of the Trojan War.
  • He delivered a broadside to the RMT leadership, saying: "This response to a significantly enhanced offer exposes their true priority - using the British public and NR workers as pawns in a fight with the Government.2022 December 14, Mel Holley, “Network News: Strikes go on as RMT rejects RDG's "detrimental" offer”, in RAIL, number 972, page 9

More sentences with pawn

  • He was down by a bishop and a pawn after 15 moves.From the entry down
  • You want to bring the rook and then start pushing your pawns.From the entry bring
  • In this standard opening position White has to be careful because the pawn on e4 hangs.From the entry hang
  • The object of Sorry! is to get all four of your pawns to your home.From the entry home
  • After I checked my opponent with a pawn, he resigned immediately.From the entry check
  • White's development is good, but black's has been hampered by the pawn on e5.From the entry development
  • Having crossed the chessboard, his pawn was promoted to a queen.From the entry promote
  • We'll pawn this necklace off as real gold, and make a fortune.From the entry pawn off as
  • This move discovers an attack on a vital pawn.From the entry discover
  • Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess.From the entry illegal
  • The nonattacking pawn posed no threat in the chess game.From the entry nonattacking
  • The white knight is attacking the pawn on e4.From the entry white knight
  • These two events are called when this player controller possesses and unpossesses a pawn.2021, Kassandra Arevalo, Matthew Tovar, Jingtian Li, Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya, pages 12-156. From the entry unpossess
  • The BK plans a march to h8, eating the f4 pawn en route, for a book draw.2018 April 6, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Schoolboy Vincent Keymer secures shock triumph at Grenke Open”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry book
  • The study percentage, that is, where the keymove was with a pawn, was 26.2016, A. J. Roycroft, The Chess Endgame Study, page 37. From the entry keymove
  • I told him I read the pawn sheets regular and I haven't seen them listed.2015 July 19, “Other Lives”, in True Detective, season 2, episode 5. From the entry stolen
  • The ending is resignable for White, down two pawns, with nothing to show for it.2015, Cyrus Lakdawala, 1…b6: Move by Move. From the entry resignable
  • And you—you clueless, literate shmuck—are but a pawn in this game.2012 November 28, “Please Click On Our Website's Banner Ads”, in The Onion. From the entry pageview
  • The conjoined pawns, an impenetrable knot, begin to roll queenward, leaving Black hopelessly uncoordinated.2012, Cyrus Lakdawala, “Kramnik on Defence”, in Kramnik: Move by Move, Everyman Chess, game 20 (V.Kramnik-L.Aronian, Zürich Chess…. From the entry queenward
  • The pawn isn't worth the tempos that you spend moving your piece(s) away from the action.2012, Joel Johnson, Formation Attack Strategies, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 123. From the entry pawn grabbing
  • The pawn from the first player is then considered captured and removed from the board.2007, Mark A. Borders, “The Rules”, in The Self-Improvement of Chess: Why the Game's Basics Apply to Daily Living, [Raleigh, N.C.]: Lulu…. From the entry en passant
  • But Howie was only a pawn in this war, a foot soldier, a red shirt.2007, Dana Stabenow, A Deeper Sleep, →ISBN, page 174. From the entry red shirt
  • Pawning the altarcloth powerfully symbolized this renunciation of the abbey's liberty.2006, Susan Boynton, Shaping a Monastic Identity, page 29. From the entry altarcloth
  • These alternate with package stores like cause and effect: pawn, booze, pawn, booze, pawn, booze.1998, Reg Saner, Reaching Keet Seel. From the entry loathe-worthy
  • He goes to this pawn shop and asks for a reliever.1929, Maine. Legislature, Legislative Record, page 1033. From the entry reliever
  • Ding initiates the pawn exchange (19 cxb5 axb5).2024 December 12, Bryan Armen Graham, “Gukesh Dommaraju defeats Ding Liren in World Chess Championship Game 14 – live updates”, in…. From the entry drawish
  • A social supermarket and pawn shops in Norfolk and Suffolk say they are seeing more people walk through their doors.2022 May 24, “Norfolk and Suffolk residents turn to social shops and pawnbrokers”, in BBC, archived from the original on 25 Apr 2024. From the entry social supermarket
  • This seems certain to simplify into a battle between White's king, rook and two pawns against Black's king and rook.2020, Andrew Soltis, How to Swindle in Chess, Batsford Books, →ISBN. From the entry book
  • So, when in doubt, move a pawn first.2016, A. J. Roycroft, The Chess Endgame Study, page 37. From the entry keymove
  • In a more Sophisticated version, the first queener may force a queen trade into a Simple pawn ending.2015, Joel Benjamin, Liquidation on the Chess Board, →ISBN. From the entry queener
  • And didn’t you tell him that the pawn shop that he has there is the home of the feathered oof-bird?”2015 April 24, Francis Dimenno, “The Information #883”, in dimenno. From the entry feathered oof-bird
  • SIMONE: And he tracked down Mom's cameo—the one Dad pawned?2014, Molly Smith Metzler, Elemeno Pea, →ISBN, page 66. From the entry cameo
  • Neither King will be able to stop the opponent's pawns from queening, when the game should be a draw.2003, Yasser Seirawan, Winning Chess Endings, London: Everyman Chess, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry queen
  • In this case, White promotes his pawn first and is able to put this advantage to good use.2003, Yasser Seirawan, Winning Chess Endings, London: Everyman Chess, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry queen
  • Avoid using your children as pawns in any disagreements or legal battles you might have with your expartner.2000, Robert Abrams, Walter T. Burke, Timothy E. Casserly, Boomer Basics, →ISBN. From the entry expartner

Meaning of pawn

  1. noun The state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.
  2. noun An instance of pawning something.
  3. noun An item given as security on a loan, or as a pledge.

Full definition of pawn

Questions about pawn in a sentence

How do you use pawn in a sentence?
Pawn is used as a noun and verb. For example: “All our jewellery was in pawn by this stage.”
What is a short sentence with pawn?
“Ding initiates the pawn exchange (19 cxb5 axb5).”
What does pawn mean?
Pawn means the state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pawn (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use pawn in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pawn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.