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Pawn   /pɔn/   Listen
Pawn

noun
1.
An article deposited as security.
2.
A person used by another to gain an end.  Synonyms: cat's-paw, instrument.
3.
(chess) the least powerful piece; moves only forward and captures only to the side; it can be promoted to a more powerful piece if it reaches the 8th rank.
4.
Borrowing and leaving an article as security for repayment of the loan.
verb
(past & past part. pawned; pres. part. pawning)
1.
Leave as a guarantee in return for money.  Synonyms: hock, soak.



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"Pawn" Quotes from Famous Books



... but he desired to be excused, and wished to know if the captain could get no credit, how he was to be paid. Captain Nicholls was quite at a loss how to act; being denied both credit and victuals, he thought that he would pawn or sell his ring, watch, buckles and buttons. Accordingly, returning to Mr. Langford, he begged he would give him what he thought proper for these things. He took the ring from his finger, the watch ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous

... had a comfortable home with plenty of furniture and full of all the useless and hideous knicknack which apparently make so many people happy. Only a few remain, for nearly all have "had to go"—the term we know so well to mean that they are now in pawn, and that it will probably never be possible to redeem them. When first we visited them they were living in a basement room where rats made it difficult for them to sleep, and where, on the many unexpected calls I paid, I never once ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton

... pledged the ring, my sympathies with the cause of a downtrodden and chivalrous people were at once enlisted. I could not help wondering that in rich England, the home of the oppressed and the free, a young and lovely woman like the fair author of those pages should be obliged to thus pawn her jewels—her marriage gift—for the means to procure her bread! With the exception of the English aristocracy,—who much resemble them,—I do not know of a class of people that I so much admire as the Southern planters. May I become better ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte

... he holds his counsel. Ye might do worse than lay that to your heart, Mr. Colwyn, in your walk through life. There's fifty years' experience behind it. Good-bye to ye, Mr. Colwyn, and ye, young man. I wish ye both luck in your search, but my advice is, try the pawn-shops." At the pressure of his thumb on the table the young Jew appeared from the next room, as if summoned by a magic wand, to ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees

... the Duke of Marlborough's papers, and 'in some of his exigencies put them in pawn. They then remained with the old Duchess, who, in her will, assigned the task to Glover [the author of Leonidas] and Mallet, with a reward of a thousand pounds, and a prohibition to insert any verses. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell


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