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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Courts often look to rulings in other jurisdictions to guide decisions, even if those precedents aren’t binding, according to Reyes, who said this is especially true in new legal fields like climate litigation.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
24 Mar. 2026
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This is news that is bound to be celebrated by many in the creative community who have become loudly and vehemently opposed to anything AI encroaching on Hollywood.—
Brian Welk,
IndieWire,
24 Mar. 2026
Verb
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This was only the fourth 20-rebound game of his career; the 21 boards tied a career high.—
Barry Jackson,
Miami Herald,
22 Mar. 2026
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Just a couple of months later, another dog was found at the airport; this time, the dog was found tied to a pole in the short-term parking garage.—
Patrick Damp,
CBS News,
21 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Her family said she was chained to her hospital bed.—
Kristie Keleshian,
CBS News,
22 Mar. 2026
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Every now and then, there were bikes chained to the iron fences along the sidewalk and huge trash bins.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Lindsay staggered around, shackled by heroin.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 Mar. 2026
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For the nest two years, images of a child shackled and handcuffed in an orange jail jumpsuit and media coverage chronicled the case.—
Scott Butler,
Florida Times-Union,
13 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In response to the mothering of a sister, a brother has options—resist, lash out, put up with it, become utterly dependent on it.—
Christine Smallwood,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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Many Banksy fans mourned the loss of the mystery and lashed out at the news outlet.—
Laurie Kellman,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Mar. 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 29 Mar. 2026.
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