pin, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pin n.

1. in ext./fig. uses of SE.

(a) the penis.

c.1460		‘Talk of Ten Wives’ in Furnivall Jyl of Brentford 32: [His] sory pyne That schulld hengge bytwen his leggis.
c.1540		J. Heywood Four P.P. in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 36: Great pins she must have, one or other; If she lose one, she will find another.
1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) I ii: As for my pinnes, I’ll bestow them of Joan When we sit by the fire and roast a crab; She and I have good sport when we are all alone.
1618		Fletcher Loyal Subject III v: Have ye any crackt maiden-heads, to new leach or mend? [...] Ile clout ’em, Ile mend ’em, Ile knock in a pin, Shall make ’em as good maids agen, As ever they have been.
1635		H. Glapthorne Lady Mother I i: Her Belly a soft Cushion where no sinner But her true love must dare stick a pin in her.
a.1642		J. Suckling ‘Pedlar of Small Wares’ in Works (1910) 65: Ladies, want you pins? If that you do, I have those will enter, and that stiffly too.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Rabelais III 19: The quick-set Imp of the Pin of Copulation.
c.1672		‘Have Y’Any Crackt Maidenheads?’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 44: I’ll clout ’em, I’ll mend ’em, I’ll knock in a pin.
1685–8		‘Jolly Jack of all Trades’ Pepys Ballads (1987) IV 263: Pins for precious Maids.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 681: Even Prosperine shan’t scape a prick Of the long pin within thy breeches.
a.1700		‘North Country Lovers’ Pepys Ballads (1987) IV 24: Unto Venus sport she drew him in And in her mortrice fastened straight his pin.
1715		Johnson Country Lasses V i: I dress her, I undress her; [...] she wou’d not suffer any living Thing to stick a Pin about her besides me.
1789		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 17: The use of the needle first fired this lady’s imagination with the use of a certain pin.
c.1800		Burns ‘Brose an’ Butter’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 72: And hey, for roaring pin / To nail twa wames thegither.
1836		‘A Celebrated Parody On The King, God Bless Him’ Cockchafer 6: I boast not of gems, but a pin for my lass. / Of strength nought can e’er dispossess it. / Upstanding, uncovered, right up, let it pass. / Here’s a health to Quim, and God bless it.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 25 Mar. 3/1: Smith [...] said feelingly, ‘Would you really, Rosy, like to be a butterfly?’ [...] "No, indeed, I would not, for if I was, you would lay me on my back and run a pin through me.’ Smith blushed.
c.1864		‘The Royal Passage’ Rakish Rhymer (1917) 57: [...] to see / The celebrated Needles, ’bout which there has been such a din, / When the Queen declared she’d any time much sooner see a pin.
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 22: One lays his barren old pin to rest.
1888		Stag Party n.p.: I heard her exclaim, ’tis a beautiful pin, / Be quick now my darling and put it right in.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 64: Cheville, f. The penis; ‘the pin’.
a.1900		‘Bollocky Bill the Sailor’ 🎵 What have you got between your thighs / I have got a pin-cushion / And I’ve got a pin, and I’ll stick it in.
1923		R. McAlmon Companion Volume 50: They don’t take the pin. They’re lots of others who go in for the fumbling stuff.
1934		Bo Carter ‘Pin in Your Cushion’ 🎵 Now let me stick my pin, oh, in your cushion, baby, my pin is so bright and long.
c.1940		‘O’Reilly’ in Bold (1979) 166: At last I found her hole, Sir, / And tried it with my pin.
1966		R.H. Rimmer Harrad Experiment 48: ‘Why didn’t you pin her and get it over with?’ [...] ‘I’ve got principles. I’m not using my pin to seduce virgins.’.

(b) (US) a (young) man.

1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 3 July 4/3: There is a certain cock-eyed pin, who is in the habit of lounging on the Battery [...] and who has more tongue than brains.
1834		Ely’s Hawk and Buzzard (NY) 21 June 1/3: Among these young pins is one who answers to the name of Robert, a fine looking young blade.

1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 51: I got to having a lot of dreams about guys giving me a shot. And just as the ‘pin’ was going ‘home’ I’d wake up and realize the misery I was in.
1973		M. Agar Ripping and Running.

(d) (drugs) a very thin marijuana cigarette.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 210: pin [usually rolled thinner than an ordinary cigarette] A marijuana cigarette.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1982		Abel Marihuana Dict.
1993–2002		‘420 Dict.’ at 420TIMES.COM 🌐 Pin – thinly-rolled marijuana cigarettes.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 17: Pin — Marijuana.

2. almost always in pl., a leg; thus one-pinned, one-legged, pin-ends, feet.

1512		Hickscorner Ci: I wolde that hell were full of suche prymmes Than wolde I renne thyder on my pynnes As fast as I myght go.
1628		J. Earle Micro-Cosmographie No. 25: A Downe-right scholler: His body is not set upon nice pinnes, to bee turning and flexible [...] but his scrape is homely and his nod worse.
1781		J. Burgoyne Lord of Manor III ii: I never saw a fellow better set upon his pins.
c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: When I’m cut down from de Rope. / You’ll bring back de Puff to me Bellows, / And set me, once more, on me Pins.
1800		‘Pray Remember Jack’ Jovial Songster 84: I ax’d, as folks hove by, / And shew’d my wooden pin.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 220: [of a man whose second leg was blown off] It was high time for him to leave off play when his last pin was bowled down.
1815		T. Whittell ‘Valiant Edward Steel’ Poetical Works 139: Your pins must have a wimble.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 16: These Black diamonds [...] give the one-pinned Swaddy a lift [...] in his little way of trade .
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) ix: In little more than a month or two, my young friend was on his pin-ends again.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) xiv: When a man is down, down with him [...] he must get upon his pins how he can.
1825		N.-Y. National Advocate 14 Nov. 2/3: There was considerable claret drawn [...] dominos shattered, bowsprit twisted away, and hulks otherwise damaged, till neither party was able to stand on his pins.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 52: He is [...] as nimble on his pins as a greyhound.
1841		Punch 17 July I 4: Tom unshackles his wooden pin.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 4/2: But quickly on his pins again he meditates a teaser / Bungs up the eye of Bungaree and clareted his sneezer.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 389: I shall take care to keep more steady on my pins.
1850		Manchester Spy (NH) 21 Sept. n.p.: ‘Oh, maple molasses! if she didn’t make her pins fly!’ .
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 79: I don’t often get up on my pins to trouble you with a neat and appropriate speech.
1861		Hills & Plains I 216: ‘I am active enough on my pins in the plains’.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 28: In vain did the chairman hoist the now disjointed Jemmy McLangley upon his liquor-soaked pins.
1866		Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW) 18 Sept. 4/1: A racehorse with damaged legs is described [...] as ‘done up in his pins’ and [...] ‘weak in his understanding,’ or ‘shaky in his timbers’.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 109: They’d make her so sarsy that she’d forget to be keerful of her lame pin, and lay herself up.
1879		G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 78: Yes, he goes lame on his pins.
1884		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 5 Jan. 3/3: Johnny Rogers [...] has knocked the British and braggart Harry Jackson off his pins.
1884		Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea II vi: Just you get up and steady yourself on your two pins, and you’ll be as right as ninepence.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VI 1221: Bella [...] had a full-calved pair of pins, which increased my lust for her.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 299: It took nearly a month before he was regularly on his pins again.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 92: She’s livelier on her pins dan a cable car goin round Union Square.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 58: Pins, legs.
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 147: I felt unsteady on my pins.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 29 Dec. 200: We were [...] all good on our pins, and long-distance walkers.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 6/5: He was smart on his pins .
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 109: He says I got the handsomest pins in the company.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 105: He was a lively old gent on his pins.
1906		E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] He’s going in for this dance now 🎵 He was fairly knocked right off his pins.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 127: They say the Roman was knocked clean off his pins.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 92: Have been hit in the pin. Come if possible.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 355: Straight on her pins anyway not like the other.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 60: They touch most of us, knock us off our pins, and make us want to cry or shout.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 374: He looks a bit weak on his pins, corporal.
1938		W. Watson Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2000) 123: The pins aren’t wobbling.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I said: ‘Hey, nix!’ and surged to my pins.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 374: White legs and knees. Pathos of her pins.
1959		G. Hamilton Summer Glare 53: I came home with a beaut plastered pin, white, stiff and cumbersome.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 61: Nice pair of pins you got there, kid.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 102: You haven’t half got a nice pair of pins on you.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 117: Bunches of varicose like gnarled roots on her pins.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 89: He’d just come out of hospital after having his leg amputated [...] so I gave him a drink and asked him what it felt like to be on one pin now.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 123: Na Na’s pins are fucked up likes.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 6: She did have nice pins, though.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 126: I don’t give a fuck if you don’t spread your pins for me tonight.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] I could see a couple of bruises [...] on the backs of those never-ending pins.

3. a drug dealer [? abbr. SE kingpin].

1986

cited in Spears Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986).

4. (US prison, also pinner) a female inmate acting as a lookout.

1966		R. Giallombardo Study of a Women’s Prison 116: The ‘hip square’ tends to sympathize with the inmate code [...] sometimes going so far as to ‘pin’ – act as lookout – for other inmates. [Ibid.] 122: The pinner must be an inmate who can be trusted.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 40: Pin A female keeping watch for prison guards or officials while an illegal activity is taking place.

In compounds

pin box (n.)

the vagina.

1675		T. Duffet Psyche Debauch’d IV ii: Save your Princes, still whining after your Pinbox, are there no more Maids but Maukin?
c.1680		‘The High-prized Pin-box’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1897) VIII 713: This Damsel she doth set great store / by her pin-box brisk and rare; / But every ordinary whore hat got such kit of ware.

pin case (n.)

the vagina.

c.1540

J. Heywood Four P.P. in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 36: I beshrew thy knave’s naked heart, For making my wife’s pincase so wide The pins fall out.

pin-cushion (n.)

the mons veneris; thus the vagina.

1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 258: ‘They say that Cleopatra’s Needle’s to be stuck in front of Carlton House!’ ‘They’ll make the square a pin-cushion.’ ‘No! worse—a needle-case.’.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 3/3: A certain female by the name of Mrs D. alias pin cushion [...] parading [...] Broadway and picking up flats.
1833		‘The Parish Priest’ Regular Thing, and No Mistake 74: When she’d find you niggling upon Love’s pincushion, / She’d spit in your face and call you a fool.
1841		‘Woman’s Dial’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 5: Mother Eve, in her wooly pincushion, they say, / Put a pin to distingwish the night from the day.
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 20 Sept. n.p.: Wonder if that J. W—x [...] has shown her pin cushion to that young man yet?
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) V 960: This pad [of flesh] gradually dies off into the general surface of the belly, and is called a mons, or pincushion.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
a.1900		‘Bollocky Bill the Sailor’ 🎵 What have you got between your thighs / I have got a pin-cushion / And I’ve got a pin, and I’ll stick it in.
1934		Bo Carter ‘Pin in Your Cushion’ 🎵 Now let me stick my pin, oh, in your cushion, baby, ’cause your cushion’s so soft and warm.

pin gun (n.) [gun n.¹ (7)]

(US drugs) an improvised hypodermic syringe, using a medicine dropper and a pin.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

pin-jabber (n.) [jab v. (1)]

(drugs) a drug user who injects their preferred drug.

2000

D. Lochte Lucky Dog and Other Tales of Murder 74: Try five years doubled up in a ten-foot cage with an ex-pin jabber who can’t do nothing but play nose checkers.

pin joint (n.) [joint n. (5c)]

(drugs) a very thin marijuana cigarette.

1981		in Spears Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986).
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 54: ‘[Impossible]’s my middle name,’ said Lenny, lighting a pin joint.

pin-pusher (n.)

1. (N.Z. prison) a homosexual.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 141/1: pin pusher n. 1 a homosexual.

2. (N.Z. prison) an intravenous drug user.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 141/1: pin pusher n. 2 a drug user.

pinroll (n.)

see pinner n.³

SE in slang uses

In compounds

pin artist (n.) [-artist sfx]

(US tramp) an abortionist.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 146: Pin Artist. An abortionist. The reference is to the simplest, and at the same time the most dangerous, form of abortion.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 812: pin artist – An abortionist.

pin basket (n.) [SE pin-basket, a large ornamented pin-cushion with pins of varying lengths arranged to resemble a basket; such a pin-cushion was trad. given to a mother after the birth of a child]

the youngest child.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Pin Basket, the last or youngest Child.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

pin covers (n.)

a pair of breeches or trousers.

1840

Flash Mirror 7: [A] light-coloured neck scrag, gold chin prop, turnip and bunch of onions, pinched-in pin covers and Wellington mud-rakers .

pin cushion (n.)

1. (N.Z. prison) one who has been badly stabbed.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 140/2: pin cushion n. 1 a person who has been (repeatedly) stabbed.

2. (N.Z. prison) an intravenous drug user.

2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 140/2: pin cushion n. 2 an intravenous drug user, one who is ‘stuck with needles’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 303: [T]ake out my anger on some dolly pin-cushion Dilly-chavvy for chinka beyongs or so.

pin-dick (n.)

(US) a small and/or thin penis.

2009

N. Flexner Disassembled Man [ebook] Were you sticking your pin-dick into the Hershey highway? You fucking faggot.

pin-grease (n.)

see axle grease n. (1)

pinhead (n.)

see separate entries.

pin-sticker (n.)

a lady’s maid.

1860

R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 38: Miss Curling’s maid thinking Rosa had ‘got plenty of sail on hooiver,’ while Mrs Broadmeadow’s pin-sticker rather stands up or quality.

pin work (n.)

(US Und.) pinpricks on cards, used to aid cheating.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 158/1: Pinwork. Needle or pin pricks marking playing cards for cheating—a crude variation of edgework.

In phrases

hang a pin (v.)

(US) to give one’s girlfriend one’s fraternity pin to wear as a sign of engagement or exclusive dating relationship.

1930		in D.O. Smith Cradle 28: You had little respect for the real meaning of hanging a pin ... and decided that hanging the pin would be a delightful gesture toward the Goddess Romance [HDAS].
1934		Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl. 184: Hang a pin—To become engaged to a girl and put a fraternity pin on her as a sign.

pull the pin (v.) [the pulling of the connecting pin between two railroad wagons]

1. (US) to resign, to retire, to quit, to be fired from a job; to go on strike.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 391: To bunch, or to drag it, means to quit. To pull the pin has the same meaning.
1938		L. Beebe High Iron 222: Pull the Pin, to: To knock off work or go home for the day.
1947		R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 153: Old-timers are constantly talking about ‘hitting the bricks’ and ‘pulling the pin’ and ‘sitting her down,’ expressions indicating strikes.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: pull the pin – To quit work.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 54: Only four years to go until I can pull the pin and retire.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 308: ‘You’re pulling the pin?’ the Ferret said. ‘Yeah, twenty years is enough,’ the Weasel said.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 96: I quit on the spur of the moment, and when I told Lanny he pulled the pin too.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘Max has pulled the pin. Simeone’s pulled the pin. They whole gig’s over’.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] Apparently, a few punters had pulled the pin in that section of the river and we’d hardly impressed our instructor with our professionalism.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘I’m not so sure I don’t want to finish out at some desk in the outer boroughs, pull the pin, take my pension‘.

2. (US Und.) to leave, to go (away).

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 151: PULL THE PIN.– [...] to leave, to go away.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: pull the pin – [...] to leave; to go away.

3. (US prison) to call for help.

2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Pull the Pin: Call for help, sometimes derogatory towards officers. ‘He’s gonna pull the pin,’ or ‘He’d probably pull the pin.’ (NY).
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 36: [A]fter a few minutes they [guards] would pull the pin and get their response and break it up and then lock everybody down.

4. (Aus.) to die.

2016

N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Dead: 1. Carked it 2. Kissed the concrete 3. Lights out 4. Wheels up 5. Bit the dust 6. Cashed in her chips 7. Curled up the toes 8. Pulled the pin.

put in the pin (v.) [put in the peg under peg n.⁴]

to stop drinking during a session, or to give up drinking completely.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864		London Standard 13 Dec. 3/3: When he has lapped the Gutter, and Got the Gravel Rash [...] not till then is he entitled, in vulgar society, to the title of Lushington, or recommended to Put in the Pin.
1868		Greenock Teleg. 24 July 3/1: The Bailie said that [...] he would strongly advise her to put in the pin and keep herself sober.
1873		Sl. Dict. 254: Pin ‘to put in the PIN,’ to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of PINS, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. A correspondent gives a different explanation. ‘When an Irishman makes a vow or promise to abstain from drinking for a time, he puts a PIN in the right-hand cuff of his coat. So that, in case he could ever forget his promise, he will see the pin, like an accusing angel, when lifting the glass to his mouth.’ Drunken people are often requested to ‘put in the PIN,’ from some remote connexion between their unsteadiness and that of a carriage wheel which has lost its linch-PIN.