pinion Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gear with a small number of teeth designed to mesh with a larger wheel or rack
  2. noun any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird
    flight feather; quill feather; quill.
  3. noun wing of a bird
    pennon.
  4. verb bind the arms of
    shackle.
  5. verb cut the wings off (of birds)

WordNet

Pin"ion noun
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
Pin"ion noun
Etymology
OF. pignon a pen, F., gable, pinion (in sense 5); cf. Sp. piñon pinion; fr. L. pinna pinnacle, feather, wing. See Pin a peg, and cf. Pen a feather, Pennat, Pennon.
Definitions
  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.
Pin"ion transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Pinioned ; present participle & verbal noun Pinioning
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913