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"ion, n. [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.]
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 (?), n. (Zoöl.)
A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata,
whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.