pinion

Noun · Verb
Synonyms: flight featherquillquill featherpennonshackle

WordNet 3.0

Noun (3)

  1. a gear with a small number of teeth designed to mesh with a larger wheel or rack
  2. any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a birdSynonyms: flight featherquillquill feather
  3. wing of a birdSynonyms: pennon

Verb (2)

  1. bind the arms ofSynonyms: shackle
  2. cut the wings off (of birds)
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Pinion \Pin"ion\, n. (Zool.) A moth of the genus Lithophane, as Lithophane antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples. [1913 Webster]
Pinion \Pin"ion\, n. [OF. pignon a pen, F., gable, pinion (in sense 5); cf. Sp. pi[~n]on pinion; fr. L. pinna pinnacle, feather, wing. See Pin a peg, and cf. Pen a feather, Pennat, Pennon.]

1.A feather; a quill. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

2.A wing, literal or figurative. [1913 Webster]

Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.— Pope.[1913 Webster]

3.The joint of bird's wing most remote from the body. --Johnson. [1913 Webster]

4.A fetter for the arm. --Ainsworth. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Pinion \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. [1913 Webster]

2.To disable by cutting off the pinion joint. --Johnson. [1913 Webster]

3.To disable or restrain, as a person, by binding the arms, esp. by binding the arms to the body. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Her elbows pinioned close upon her hips.— Cowper.[1913 Webster]

4.Hence, generally, to confine; to bind; to tie up. "Pinioned up by formal rules of state." --Norris. [1913 Webster]

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