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Pinion   /pˈɪnjən/   Listen
noun
Pinion  n.  (Zool.) A moth of the genus Lithophane, as Lithophane antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.



Pinion  n.  
1.
A feather; a quill.
2.
A wing, literal or figurative. "Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome."
3.
The joint of bird's wing most remote from the body.
4.
A fetter for the arm.
5.
(Mech.) A cogwheel with a small number of teeth, or leaves, adapted to engage with a larger wheel, or rack (see Rack); esp., such a wheel having its leaves formed of the substance of the arbor or spindle which is its axis.
Lantern pinion. See under Lantern.
Pinion wire, wire fluted longitudinally, for making the pinions of clocks and watches. It is formed by being drawn through holes of the shape required for the leaves or teeth of the pinions.



verb
Pinion  v. t.  (past & past part. pinioned; pres. part. pinioning)  
1.
To bind or confine the wings of; to confine by binding the wings.
2.
To disable by cutting off the pinion joint.
3.
To disable or restrain, as a person, by binding the arms, esp. by binding the arms to the body. "Her elbows pinioned close upon her hips."
4.
Hence, generally, to confine; to bind; to tie up. "Pinioned up by formal rules of state."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Pinion" Quotes from Famous Books



... the left extremity of the frame, receives motion from the motor through the pulley, p, at the side of which is mounted the loose pulley, p. This motion is transmitted by the drum, M, and the pulley, L, to the shaft, l, at the other extremity. This latter is provided with a pinion, l', which, through the wheel, F', gives motion to the saw. The shaft, m, likewise controls the upward or downward motion of the saw through the small drums, N and n, and the two pairs of fast ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 620, November 19,1887 • Various

... had West down by this time. They were struggling to handcuff him. He fought furiously, his great arms and legs threshing about like flails. Not till he had worn himself out could they pinion him. ...
— Man Size • William MacLeod Raine

... a bundle of willow sticks, or a sinew cord or leaf of dried grass tied with knots, that the Monos might know how many suns must cross the sky before they should go to Ah-wah-nee to share the feast of venison with their neighbors. And the Monos gathered together baskets of pinion nuts, and obsidian arrow-heads, and strings of shells, to carry with them to give in return for acorns and chinquapin nuts and ...
— The California Birthday Book • Various

... friends is on your side, an' I ain't pickin' no muss wid you. But she's got der front of der City Hall to do me like she done. And say, fellers, den she was goin' ter give me a song an' dance 'bout lookin' fer me. Ba-a-a! She knows my 'pinion ...
— Different Girls • Various

... Excepting Daedalus, of yore, And his son Icarus, who wore Upon their backs Those wings of wax He had read of in the old almanacs. Darius was clearly of the opinion That the air is also man's dominion, And that, with paddle or fin or pinion, We soon or late shall navigate The azure, as now we sail the sea. The thing looks simple enough to me; And, if you doubt it, Hear how Darius reasoned about it. "The birds can fly, an' why can't I? Must we give in," says he, with a grin, "That the bluebird an' phoebe Are smarter'n ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VIII (of X) • Various


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