Dictionary

put a pin in en · VERB

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Metaphors that arise from various uses of pins, including popping a balloon, pinning in place, and marking with a pin (such as a map position) so that something can be found quickly later. See earlier stick a pin there.

Meanings

1. To discredit or ridicule; to deflate someone or something that is pompous or overly esteemed.
   • On the other hand, the lecture which puts a pin in professional egos and provokes opposition, may well turn out to carry the seed to future professional growth. 1973, Andreas Fuglesang, The Story of a Seminar in Applied Communication, page 12:
   • Another has heard the Thomas orchestra play the overture, or remembers how well the orchestra under Mancinelli came out with the fine touches of the music, and this one puts a pin in the orchestra. The music critic, that microcosm of the tonal world, has heard all these things, and he puts a pin in every one of them and goes home and looks in the glass to find the halo due him for having performed a virtuous act . 1897 December, “Editorial: Bric-A-Brac”, in Music, volume 13, page 218:
   • Let me put a pin in a few hierarchical myths: ○ Doctors are smarter/better/more important than nurses: nope, they just have more knowledge and experience in a particular area than you do. 2008, Bethann Siviter, The Newly Qualified Nurse's Handbook, page 108:
2. To mark well; bear in mind.
   • I am no upholder of party cries at electioneering times, but nevertheless I would advise all our readers to put a pin in that lot. 1885 July 4, The Freeman's Journal, Sydney, page 14, column 3:
   • The people who must save this old world, if it is ever saved, are those who are most interested in it and comprise 90 per cent of the population of earth — the working class. You can put a pin in this. 1916 August 31, The Worker, Brisbane, page 7, column 1:
   • Land settlement, it appears to me, offers the only way. Every pound of butter, wool, or wheat raised in Australia increases our wealth. The vital thing for us to do is to pay our debts. It is the old fashioned way in which to retain our self respect and pre serve our honor and — put a pin in this spot — it pays. 1931 February 3, The Johnstone River Advocate and Innisfail News, Qld, page 1, column 3:
3. To make something certain; to nail down.
   • As Boyce wrote: I could sense that there was some expectation that [the Opening Ceremony] would put a pin in the national identity, that we would have to decide — is Britain rural or urban, ancient or modern, riot or clean-up, roundhead or cavalier, multi-cultural or divided? 2015, Paul Prescott, Erin Sullivan, Shakespeare on the Global Stage, page 22:
   • Every time he seemed to have a notion of what, why and when, whenever he seemed to be able to put a pin in that ever elusive cause, that ghost that was to blame, whoever it belonged to it would suddenly and without warning disappear. 2012, Aaron Doolittle, Twenty-Nine, page 132:
4. To postpone; to stop focusing or working on (something) until it can be finished at a later time.
   • Investigations of crimes continued 24/7, but in cases where no lives hung in the balance and national security was not an issue, the Bureau cranked down the intensity of its work on Saturday and Sunday. Nathan could justify putting a pin in the matter of Jane Hawk until Monday. 2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 238:
   • “Remember that gay unsub in Santa Monica who killed boys on their twenty-first birthdays? He brought them home, sat them up at his dinner table, and served the corpses birthday cake.” “Okay, let's put a pin in that for a minute. We don't know why he actually cooked a Cajun dinner, but let's assume he did. 2011, Stephen J. Cannell, Vigilante:
   • As long as I'm on this subject, let me put a pin in the narrative for another few lines so I can close out the story of my undergraduate career, which by now had been dragging on for way longer than necessary. 2011, Christine O'Donnell, Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, page 116:
5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, pin, in.
   • A woman makes a wax man, puts a pin in its chest; and the man dies. 1949, Eugène Jolas, Transition Workshop, page 156:
   • Every time we get a tip, we put a pin in this map. 2015, Daniel Handler, We Are Pirates, page 215:
   • They're going to put a pin in my femur. 2005, Keith Dixon, Ghostfires:
   • Lay down the binding on the left, and put a pin in the quilt to mark where it ends. 2014, Jennifer Fulton, Quilting, page 194:

Forms

Relateds

put in the pin