Part 287

Pin"ion, n. [OF. pignon a pen, F., gable, pinion (in sense 5); cf. Sp. piÒon pinion; fr. L. pinna pinnacle, feather, wing. See Pin a peg, and cf. Pen a feather, Pennat, Pennon.] 1. A feather; a quill. Shak.

2. A wing, literal or figurative.

Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.

Pope.

3. The joint of bird's wing most remote from the body. Johnson.

4. A fetter for the arm. Ainsworth.

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.

Pin"ion (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pinioned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pinioning.] 1. To bind or confine the wings of; to confine by binding the wings. Bacon.

2. To disable by cutting off the pinion joint. Johnson.

3. To disable or restrain, as a person, by binding the arms, esp. by binding the arms to the body. Shak.

Her elbows pinioned close upon her hips.

Cowper.

4. Hence, generally, to confine; to bind; to tie up. "Pinioned up by formal rules of state." Norris.

Pin"ioned (?), a. Having wings or pinions.

Pin"ion*ist, n. (Zoˆl.) Any winged creature.

Pin"ite (?), n. [So called from Pini, a mine in Saxony.] (Min.) A compact granular cryptocrystalline mineral of a dull grayish or greenish white color. It is a hydrous alkaline silicate, and is derived from the alteration of other minerals, as iolite.

Pi"nite (?), n. [L. pinus the pine tree.] 1. (Paleon.) Any fossil wood which exhibits traces of having belonged to the Pine family.

2. (Chem.) A sweet white crystalline substance extracted from the gum of a species of pine (Pinus Lambertina). It is isomeric with, and resembles, quercite.

Pink (?), n. [D. pink.] (Naut.) A vessel with a very narrow stern; -- called also pinky. Sir W. Scott.

Pink stern (Naut.), a narrow stern.

Pink, v. i. [D. pinken, pinkoogen, to blink, twinkle with the eyes.] To wink; to blink. [Obs.] L'Estrange.

Pink, a. Half-shut; winking. [Obs.] Shak.

Pink, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pinked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pinking.] [OE. pinken to prick, probably a nasalized form of pick.] 1. To pierce with small holes; to cut the edge of, as cloth or paper, in small scallops or angles.

2. To stab; to pierce as with a sword. Addison.

3. To choose; to cull; to pick out. [Obs.] Herbert.

Pink, n. A stab. Grose.

Pink, n. [Perh. akin to pick; as if the edges of the petals were picked out. Cf. Pink, v. t.] 1. (Bot.) A name given to several plants of the caryophyllaceous genus Dianthus, and to their flowers, which are sometimes very fragrant and often double in cultivated varieties. The species are mostly perennial herbs, with opposite linear leaves, and handsome five-petaled flowers with a tubular calyx.