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Gear vs Pinion - What's the difference?

gear | pinion |

In obsolete terms the difference between gear and pinion

is that gear is business matters; affairs; concern while pinion is a fetter for the arm.

As nouns the difference between gear and pinion

is that gear is equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor while pinion is a wing.

As verbs the difference between gear and pinion

is that gear is to provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio while pinion is to cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.

As an adjective gear

is (mostly British (Scouse)) great or fantastic.

gear

English

Noun

(wikipedia gear)
  • (uncountable) equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
  • Clothing; garments.
  • * Spenser
  • Array thyself in thy most gorgeous gear .
  • (obsolete) Goods; property; household items.
  • (Chaucer)
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • Homely gear and common ware.
  • (countable) a wheel with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other.
  • (countable) a particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved.
  • (countable) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque
  • (slang) recreational drugs
  • * 2003 , Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver (page 90)
  • Have you got any gear ? Dominic, have you got any acid?
  • (uncountable, archaic) stuff.
  • * 1662 , , Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:
  • "When he was digged up, which was in the presence of the Magistracy of the Town, his body was found entire, not at all putrid, no ill smell about him, saving the mustiness of the grave-Clothes, his joynts limber and flexible, as in those that are alive, his skin only flaccid, but a more fresh grown in the room of it, the wound of his throat gaping, but no gear nor corruption in it; there was also observed a Magical mark in the great toe of his right foot, viz. an Excrescency in the form of a Rose."
  • (obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.
  • * Spenser
  • Thus go they both together to their gear .
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.
  • (Wright)
  • * Latimer
  • That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.

    Synonyms

    * cog, cogwheel, gearwheel

    Derived terms

    * change gear * change gears * high gear * gear lever * gear shift * gear up * shift gear * shift gears * up a gear

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (engineering) To provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.
  • (engineering) To be in, or come into, gear.
  • to dress; to put gear on; to harness.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (mostly British (Scouse) ) great or fantastic
  • Anagrams

    * * * * ----

    pinion

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) pignon, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A wing.
  • * , II.v
  • Therefore do nimble-pinion' d doves draw Love, / And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.
  • * 1839 ,
  • Never seraph spread a pinion / Over fabric half so fair.
  • The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
  • (Johnson)
  • Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
  • * , III.xii
  • An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither / He sends so poor a pinion of his wing
  • A moth of the genus Lithophane .
  • (obsolete) A fetter for the arm.
  • (Ainsworth)

    Verb

    (en verb) :; (lb)
  • (lb) To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
  • * 1577 , (Barnabe Googe) (translator), (Konrad Heresbach) (author), Foure Bookes of Husbandrie , book iv (1586), page 169:
  • They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them.
  • * 1641–2 , Henry Best (author), Donald Woodward (editor), The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642: With a Glossary and Linguistic Commentary by Peter McClure , (Oxford University Press)/(British Academy) (1984), ISBN 0197260292 (10), ISBN 9780197260296 (13), page 115:
  • When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges.
  • * ibidem , page 129:
  • The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them.
  • * 1665–7 , (Abraham Cowley), The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley (fifth edition, 1678), “Several Di?cour?es by way of E??ays, in Ver?e and Pro?e”, essay 9: ‘The ?hortne?s of Life and uncertainty of Riches’, closing verses, verse 3 ( page 138):
  • Suppo?e, thou Fortune could to tamene?s bring, // And clip or pinion her wing; // Suppo?e thou could’?t on Fate ?o far prevail // As not to cut off thy Entail.
  • * 1727 , Peter Longueville, Philip Quarll (1816), page 67:
  • The two old ducks…being pinioned , could not fly away.
  • * 1849 , Daniel Jay Browne, The American Poultry Yard (1855), page 242:
  • They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing.
  • (lb) To bind the arms of any one, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding; to shackle.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned , and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck?; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”}}
  • * 1916 , , Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 80
  • Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter.
  • #
  • #* , V.ii
  • Know, sir that I / Will not wait pinion' d at your master's court, / Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye / Of dull Octavia.
  • #* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
  • I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me.
  • # To bind fast to something, or together.
  • Derived terms
    * * *
    References
    * “ Pinion, v.'']” listed on page 883/2–3 of volume VII (O–P, ed. , 1908) of ''[[w:Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles] (1st ed.)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) pignon.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The smallest gear in a gear drive train.
  • * 1844 ,
  • A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels.
    Derived terms
    * rack and pinion English terms with transferred senses