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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When the war began, some 81 container vessels were bound for ports along the Strait of Hormuz, according to Kpler.—
Anniek Bao,
CNBC,
18 Mar. 2026
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Ensign pointed to a ruling by the 3rd Circuit, which is only binding to that circuit, in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, which found that a district court erred by releasing someone from immigration detention through a habeas corpus petition.—
Jack Birle,
The Washington Examiner,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Teruaki Sato hit a game-tying RBI double before Shota Morishita, who entered the game as an injury replacement for Seiya Suziki, belted a three-run home run to give Japan a 5-2 lead.—
Jordan McPherson,
Miami Herald,
15 Mar. 2026
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During an interview on the 2026 SAG Actor Awards red carpet, Law Roach—Zendaya’s longtime image architect—suggested to a reporter that Zendaya and Tom Holland had tied the knot.—
Anna Cafolla,
Vogue,
15 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Look no further than how Duke surged in the second half, despite Ngongba and Foster both chained to the pine.—
Brendan Marks,
New York Times,
8 Mar. 2026
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Our first glimpse of Tommy chained up, pleading to be let go, is through the eyes of a young Macedonian refugee, Katrina (Monika Frajczyk), being given a tour of the large countryside manor where she’s just been hired by Chris for twice-a-week housework.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Lindsay staggered around, shackled by heroin.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 Mar. 2026
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On many slave ships, women sometimes had more mobility than men because they were not always shackled below deck in the same way.—
Ed Gaskin,
Boston Herald,
8 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Harvey Prager had been on watch for hours, steering through lashing rain and 20-foot waves in the Yucatan Channel.—
Jack Crosbie,
Rolling Stone,
17 Mar. 2026
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Instead of having a rational conversation with Nick, Gloria lashes out and the two split.—
Courtney Howard,
Variety,
17 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 19 Mar. 2026.
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