noun
definition
A wing.
definition
The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
definition
Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
definition
A moth of the genus Lithophane.
definition
A fetter for the arm.
verb
definition
To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
definition
To bind the arms of someone, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding.
synonyms
definition
(transferred sense) To restrain; to limit.
noun
definition
The smallest gear in a gear train.
Examples of pinions in a Sentence
Leather pinions must be protected from rats, which eat them freely.
This done he extends his enormous pinions 2 and sails majestically along, seldom deigning to flap his wings, the breeze doing the work for him.
The toothed wheels give a slightly better efficiency, but the worm gear is somewhat smoother in its action and entirely silent; the noise of gearing can, however, be considerably reduced by careful machining of the teeth, as is now always done, and also by the use of pinions made of rawhide leather or other non-resonant material.
When quick-running metal pinions are used they are arranged to run in closed oil-baths.
On such lines the beginning of a rack section is provided with a piece of rack mounted on springs, so that the pinions of the engine engage smoothly with the teeth.
For example, on the surface of a shibuichi box-lid we see the backs of a flock of geese chiselled in silver, and when the lid is opened, their breasts and the under-sides of their pinions appear.
These screws are turned from the eye-end by bevelled wheels and pinions, the latter connected with the handles a', b'.
As illustrative examples of the form of wings alluded to, those of the beetle, bee and fly may be cited - the pinions in those insects acting as helices, or twisted levers, and ' Revue des tours scientifiques de la France et del' Etranger, 1869.
In registering the movements of the wings the tips and margins of the pinions were, by an ingenious modification, employed as the styles or pens.
If such comparison be made, it will be found that the pinions in some instances diminish while the bodies increase, and the converse.
There are also two vertical racks, one at each end of the casing, in connexion with - the two springs, and these actuate pinions on the axle of the drum and cause it to revolve as the springs extend.
Next day the young phoenix is already feathered; on the third day his pinions are full grown, he salutes the priest and flies away.
Starter motors and dynamos, distributors and wiper motors, steering boxes and rack and pinions.
The pinion z and the toothed wheel d are connected by an intermediate wheel and pinion Y; the numbers of teeth in the wheels and pinions are so proportioned that twenty-four revolutions of the micrometer screw produce one revolution of the drum and wheel d.
With the exception of a few special cranes in which friction wheels are employed, it is universally the practice, in steam cranes, to connect the engine shaft with the barrel shaft by spur toothed gearing, the gear being connected or disconnected by sliding pinions.
The hawk is aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his perfect air-inflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea.