pinning

«pinning» in Mova's school dictionary: fastening something with a pin, for example a badge, a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb form (-ing form of «pin»: pin, pins, pinned, pinning); noun (uncountable, in some uses)

meaning for a pupil

1) Pinning means fastening something with a pin, for example a badge, a poster or a piece of cloth. tree →

2) Pinning (someone down) means holding a person so they cannot move, for example in a fight or a wrestling match. tree →

3) Pinning the blame on someone means saying they did something wrong, often unfairly. tree →

4) (computers) Pinning means fixing a message or app in place at the top of a screen. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday and school life, pupils pin work on a noticeboard. In stories about fights, pinning someone to the ground is rough and dangerous. In ethics lessons, «pinning the blame» on an innocent person is a common unfair act. Phrases: «pinning up», «pinning down», «pinning the blame on», «pinning your hopes on».

examples

• She was pinning her painting to the board. tree →
• The bigger boy was pinning Sam to the ground until the teacher came. tree →
• Stop pinning the blame on your sister! tree →
• Mum is pinning up the hem of my trousers. tree →
• We're pinning our hopes on the last match. tree →
• The wrestler won by pinning his opponent. tree →
• I'm pinning that message so everyone sees it. tree →

note

Spelling: double n before -ing and -ed (pinning, pinned) because «pin» is a short word ending in one vowel + one consonant. Safety: pinning someone down in play can hurt their chest and breathing; stop if they say stop.

In the corpora

• A boy Jake was pinning down bit him, and the bite got infected.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «pinning» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.