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 [pin-yuhn]   Example Sentences Origin

pin·ion

1   [pin-yuhn]
noun
1.
Machinery.
a.
a gear with a small number of teeth, especially one engaging with a rack or larger gear.
b.
a shaft or spindle cut with teeth engaging with a gear.
2.
Metalworking. a gear driving a roll in a rolling mill.
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Origin:
1650–60; < French pignon cogwheel, Middle French peignon, derivative of peigne comb, variant of pigne < Latin pectin- (stem of pecten) comb; see pecten

Related forms
pin·ion·less, adjective
pin·ion·like, adjective

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Pinion is an SAT word you need to know.
So is defunct. Does it mean:
no longer in effect or use; not operating or functioning; no longer in existence
a waterfall descending over a steep, rocky surface; a type of firework resembling a waterfall in effect
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Example Sentences
  • Just the thing for the little lady who appreciates a sturdy ring and pinion.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

pin·ion

2   [pin-yuhn]
noun
1.
the distal or terminal segment of the wing of a bird consisting of the carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges.
2.
the wing of a bird.
3.
a feather.
4.
the flight feathers collectively.
verb (used with object)
5.
to cut off the pinion of (a wing) or bind (the wings), as in order to prevent a bird from flying.
6.
to disable or restrain (a bird) in such a manner.
7.
to bind (a person's arms or hands) so they cannot be used.
8.
to disable (someone) in such a manner; shackle.
9.
to bind or hold fast, as to a thing: to be pinioned to one's bad habits.
Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English pynyon < Middle French pignon wing, pinion < Vulgar Latin *pinniōn (stem of pinniō), derivative of Latin pinna feather, wing, fin

Related forms
un·pin·ioned, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To pinion
Collins
World English Dictionary
pinion1 (ˈpɪnjən)
 
—n
1.  poetic chiefly a bird's wing
2.  the part of a bird's wing including the flight feathers
 
—vb
3.  to hold or bind (the arms) of (a person) so as to restrain or immobilize him
4.  to confine or shackle
5.  to make (a bird) incapable of flight by removing that part of (the wing) from which the flight feathers grow
 
[C15: from Old French pignon wing, from Latin pinna wing]

pinion2 (ˈpɪnjən)
 
—n
a cogwheel that engages with a larger wheel or rack, which it drives or by which it is driven
 
[C17: from French pignon cogwheel, from Old French peigne comb, from Latin pecten comb; see pecten]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

pinion
"wing joint," c.1440, from M.Fr. pignon (c.1400), from V.L. *pinnionem, from L. penna "wing" (see pen (1)). Verb meaning "disable by binding the arms" is from 1558, older than lit. sense "cut the pinions of a wing to prevent a bird from flying" (1577).
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pinion
"small gear with teeth" (as in rack and pinion), 1659, from Fr. pignon, from O.Fr. pignon "crenellation, battlement," aug. of L. pinna "battlement, pinnacle;" confused with (but perhaps ult. a variant of) penna "wing, feather, peak" (see pen (1)).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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