What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Pinion vs Spindle - What's the difference?

pinion | spindle |

As nouns the difference between pinion and spindle

is that pinion is a wing while spindle is a rod used for spinning and then winding natural fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.

As verbs the difference between pinion and spindle

is that 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 while spindle is to make into a long tapered shape.

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

    spindle

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (dialectal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (spinning) A rod used for spinning and then winding natural fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.
  • A rod which turns, or on which something turns.
    • the spindle of a vane
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=(Henry Petroski) , title=Opening Doors , volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3 , magazine= citation , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle —being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.}}
  • A rotary axis of a machine tool or power tool.
  • A worldwide tree of the genus Euonymus , originally used for making the spindles used for spinning wool.
  • An upright spike for holding paper documents by skewering.
  • The fusee of a watch.
  • A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.
  • A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
  • (geometry) A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
  • Any marine univalve shell of the genus ; a (spindle stromb).
  • Any marine gastropod of the genus .

    • Synonyms

    * (a tree from the Euonymus genus) spindle tree

    Hypernyms

    * (a tree from the Euonymus genus) euonymus

    Verb

    (spindl)
  • To make into a long tapered shape.
  • To impale on a device for holding paper documents.
    • Do not fold, spindle or mutilate this document.

    Anagrams

    *

    External links

    * (Spindle) *