Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.