HINGE

hinge, flexible joint

(noun) a joint that holds two parts together so that one can swing relative to the other

hinge

(noun) a circumstance upon which subsequent events depend; “his absence is the hinge of our plan”

hinge

(verb) attach with a hinge

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

hinge (plural hinges)

A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.

A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.

A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.

A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.

(statistics) The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.

One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.

Synonyms

• (device upon which a door hangs): har

• (statistics): quartile

Meronyms

• (device upon which a door hangs): pintel

Verb

hinge (third-person singular simple present hinges, present participle hingeing or hinging, simple past and past participle hinged)

(transitive) To attach by, or equip with a hinge.

(intransitive, with on or upon) To depend on something.

(transitive, archaeology) The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.

(obsolete) To bend.

Anagrams

• ehing, neigh

Source: Wiktionary


Hinge, n. Etym: [OE. henge, heeng; akin to D. heng, LG. henge, Prov. E. hingle a small hinge; connected with hang, v., and Icel. hengja to hang. See Hang.]

1. The hook with its eye, or the joint, on which a door, gate, lid, etc., turns or swings; a flexible piece, as a strip of leather, which serves as a joint to turn on. The gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning. Milton.

2. That on which anything turns or depends; a governing principle; a cardinal point or rule; as, this argument was the hinge on which the question turned.

3. One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. [R.] When the moon is in the hinge at East. Creech. Nor slept the winds . . . but rushed abroad. Milton. Hinge joint. (a) (Anat.) See Ginglymus. (b) (Mech.) Any joint resembling a hinge, by which two pieces are connected so as to permit relative turning in one plane.

– To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment. Tillotson.

Hinge, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hinged; p. pr. & vb. n. Hinging.]

1. To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.

2. To bend. [Obs.] Shak.

Hinge, v. i.

Definition: To stand, depend, hang, or turn, as on a hinge; to depend chiefly for a result or decision or for force and validity; -- usually with on or upon; as, the argument hinges on this point. I. Taylor

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

10 June 2025

COMMUNICATIONS

(noun) the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.); “communications is his major field of study”


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