Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIMP'LIKE, a.

Like a pimp; vile; infamous; mean.

PIN, n.¹ [W. pin, a pin or pen; piner, piniaw, to pin; Ir. pion; Sw. pinne, whence pinn-suin, pin-swine, the porcupine; Dan. pind, a sprig; pindsviin, the porcupine; Port. pino, a peg; D. pen, penne, a pin or peg; G. pinne, a pin; pinsel, a pencil; Fr. epine, a spine, and qu. epingle, a pin; L. penna, pinna; W. pen, a summit; Sax. pinn, a pen, and pinn-treow, the pine-tree. See Pine, Fin, and Porcupine. This word denotes a sharp point or end, or that which fastens; Sax. pinan, pyndan. If the sense is a point, it is a shoot. From this is formed spine, W. yspin.]

1. A small pointed instrument made of brass wire and headed; used chiefly by females for fastening their clothes.
2. A piece of wood or metal sharpened or pointed, used to fasten together boards, plank or other timber. The larger pins of metal are usually called bolts, and the wooden pins used in ship building are called treenails [trunnels.] A small wooden pin is called a peg.
3. A thing of little value. It is not a pin's matter. I care not a pin.
4. A linchpin.
5. The central part. – Shak.
6. A peg used in musical instruments in straining and relaxing the strings.
7. A note or strain. [Vulgar and not used.] – L'Estrange.
8. A horny induration of the membranes of the eye. – Hanmer.
9. A cylindrical roller made of wood. – Corbet.
10. A noxious humor in a hawk's foot. – Ainsworth.
11. The pin of a block is the axis of the sheave.

PIN, n.²

In China, a petition or address of foreigners to the emperor, or any of his deputies.

PIN, v.t. [W. piniaw.]

1. To fasten with a pin or with pins of any kind; as, to pin the clothes; to pin boards or timbers.
2. To fasten; to make fast; or to join and fasten together. Our gates … we have but pinned with rushes. – Shak. She lifted the princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart. – Shak.
3. To inclose; to confine. – Hooker. [See the verbs Pen and Pound.]

PIN-AS'TER, n. [L. See Pine.]

The specific name of the Cluster-Pine of the south of Europe.

PIN'CASE, n.

A case for holding pins.

PIN'CERS, n. [plur. Pinchers.]

The French pincer being converted into pinch, in English, the noun derived from it regularly is pinchers, which is the word commonly and properly used.

PINCH, n.

1. A close compression with the ends of the fingers. – Dryden.
2. A gripe; a pang. – Shak.
3. Distress inflicted or suffered; pressure; oppression; as, necessity's sharp pinch. – Shak.
4. Straits; difficulty; time of distress from want. – Bacon.

PINCH, v.i.

1. To act with pressing force; to bear hard; to be puzzling. You see where the reasons pinch. – Dryden.
2. To spare; to be straitened; to be covetous. The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare / Starve, steal and pilfer to enrich an heir. – Franklin.

PINCH, v.t. [Fr. pincer; formerly pinser; Arm. pinçza; Sp. pizcar; It. pizzare, pizzicare. These are evidently from the root of It. piccare, to prick, smart, itch, to peck, to provoke, Sp. and Port. picar, to sting or prick, to peck, to dig, to bite or pinch, as cold. The root then is that of peck, pick, pike; and pinch is primarily to press between two sharp points, or to prick. Hence its peculiar application to pressure between the fingers.]

1. To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers, the teeth, claws, or with an instrument, &c.
2. To squeeze or compress between any two hard bodies.
3. To squeeze the flesh till it is pained or livid.
4. To gripe; to straiten; to oppress with want; as, to pinch a nation; to pinch the belly; to be pinched for want of food.
5. To pain by constriction; to distress; as, pinching cold. The winter pinches.
6. To press; to straiten by difficulties; as, the; argument pinches the objector. The respondent is pinched with a strong objection. – Watts.
7. To press hard; to try thoroughly.

PINCH'BECK, n. [said to be from the name of the inventor.]

An alloy of copper; a mixture of copper and zink, consisting of three or four parts of copper with one or more of zink. – Encyc.

PINCH'ER, n.

He or that which pinches.

PINCH'ERS, n. [plur. from pinch, not from the French pincette.]

An instrument for drawing nails from boards and the like, or for griping things to be held fast.

PINCH'FIST, or PINCH'PEN-NY, n.

A miser; a niggard.

PINCH'ING, n.

The act of compressing with the fingers.

PINCH'ING, ppr.

Compressing with the ends of the fingers.

PIN'CUSH-ION, n.

A small case stuffed with some soft material, in which females stick pins for safety and preservation.

PIN-DAR'IC, a.

After the style and manner of Pindar.

PIN-DAR'IC, n.

An ode in imitation of the odes of Pindar the Grecian, and prince of the lyric poets; an irregular ode. – Addison.

PIN'DUST, n.

Small particles of metal made by pointing pins. – Digby.

PINE, n.¹ [Fr. pin; Sp. and It. pino, L. pinus; Sax. pinn-treow, pin-tree. D. pynboom, W. pin-bren, pin-tree, and pin-gwyz, pin-wood. These words indicate that this name is from the leaves of the pine, which resemble pins. But the Welsh has also feinid-wyz, from feinid, a rising to a point, from fain, a cone, and gwyz, wood. The latter name is from the cones.]

A tree of the genus Pinus, of many species, some of which furnish timber of the most valuable kind. The species which usually bear this name in the United States, are the white pine, Pinus strobus, the prince of our forests; the yellow pine, Pinus resinosa; and the pitch pine, Pinus rigida.

PINE, n.² [Sax. pin, D. pyn, pain; Gr. πενομαι, πονος.]

Woe; want; penury; misery. – Spenser. [This is obsolete. See Pain.]

PINE, v.i. [Sax. pinan, to pain or torture, and to pine or languish. This verb in the sense of pain, is found in the other Teutonic dialects, but not in the sense of languishing. The latter sense is found in the Gr. πειναω, πενω. See Ar. فَنَّfanna, Class Bn, No. 22, and فَنِي, No. 25, and أفَنَ, No. 29.]

1. To languish; to lose flesh or wear away under any distress or anxiety of mind; to grow lean; followed sometimes by away. Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities. – Ezek. xxiv.
2. To languish with desire; to waste away with longing for something; usually followed by for. Unknowing that she pin'd for your return. – Dryden.

PINE, v.t.

1. To wear out; to make to languish. Where shivering cold and sickness pines the climes. – Shak. Beroe pined with pain. – Dryden.
2. To grieve for; to bemoan in silence. Abashed the devil stood … / Virtue in her own shape how lovely, saw, / And pined his loss. – Milton. [In the transitive sense this verb is now seldom used, and this use is improper, except by ellipsis.]

PIN'E-AL, a. [Fr. pineale, from L. pinus.]

The pineal gland is a part of the brain, a heart-like substance, about the bigness of a pea, situated immediately over the corpora quadrigemina, and hanging from the thalami nervorum opticorum, by two crura or peduncles. It was so called from its shape. It was considered by Descartes as the seat of the soul. – Hooper.