as in to bind
to confine or restrain with or as if with chains
Joan of Arc was pinioned to a stake and burned as a heretic
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of pinion
To be clear, there is no sense that Rondón and Ugás are defending the old guard or suggesting that a docile, starving population pinioned under the grip of a dictatorship is big-picture preferable to a rebellious insurgency.
—
Jessica Kiang, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
Haas thus theorized that the victim had been pinioned by both heels to the front of the upright beam either with their legs splayed open, frog-like, or with their knees bent and turned to one side.
—Fredrick Kunkle, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Apr. 2023
There is only one substantial object in the show, a set of wooden stocks for pinioning the legs of multiple enslaved people.
—Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2023
See All Example Sentences for pinion
Jessica Kiang, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
Haas thus theorized that the victim had been pinioned by both heels to the front of the upright beam either with their legs splayed open, frog-like, or with their knees bent and turned to one side.
—Fredrick Kunkle, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Apr. 2023
There is only one substantial object in the show, a set of wooden stocks for pinioning the legs of multiple enslaved people.
—Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2023
See All Example Sentences for pinion
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pinion
Verb
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All decisions of the judges regarding this Promotion are final and binding in all respects.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
1 Apr. 2026
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According to reports, the vessel was loaded with two million barrels of oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and was bound for China.—
Michael Loria,
USA Today,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Before the game, the Wizards were tied with the Indiana Pacers for the worst team in the league, but by the end of the night the bottom spot was theirs alone.—
Louisa Thomas,
New Yorker,
5 Apr. 2026
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Trailing by three after a disastrous first period, the Sharks got goals from Nick Leddy and Macklin Celebrini in the second period, and a nifty third-period goal from Alex Wennberg to tie the game and bring the capacity crowd at SAP Center to life.—
Curtis Pashelka,
Mercury News,
5 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Many doors had been chained shut or blocked to try to stop trespassers, but that increased the danger for firefighters.—
Tony Aiello,
CBS News,
3 Apr. 2026
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The others would increase it to $20 an hour next year or chain future increase in the minimum wage to an inflation marker.—
Wheeler Cowperthwaite,
The Providence Journal,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Prisoners were shackled to the walls, tortured and often confined to airless, windowless punishment cells.—
Tamara Hinson,
Condé Nast Traveler,
27 Mar. 2026
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When their transport convoy is ambushed, the two are forced to run while being shackled to each other and need to work together to reach their destination alive and on time.—
Diana Lodderhose,
Deadline,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Yet Floyd doesn’t flee or lash out.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
2 Apr. 2026
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Trump has repeatedly lashed out at allies for refusing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz; the UK is hosting talks with dozens of nations Thursday aimed at forming a coalition focused on that goal.—
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson,
semafor.com,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Yet this season he was fettered by scratches of both the injured and healthy variety.—
Andrew Knoll,
Daily News,
5 Mar. 2026
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This comes in the wake of millions of apps being dumped from Play Store for not being good enough and an expansion of Google’s Play Integrity API to fetter app behaviors on phones no longer eligible for security updates — Android 12 or older.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
26 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pinion.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pinion. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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