| 释义 |
ˈlinch-pin
Also 4 lyns-, 7–9 lince, lins(e, 9 (doubtfully genuine) link-. See also linpin.
[f. linch n.1 + pin.]
A pin passed through the end of an axle-tree to keep the wheel in its place.
1376–7Compotus Roll Hyde Manor (MS. Deeds Westmr. Abbey), In ij camellis ferri vocatis lynspins emptis pro carectis iiijd. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 65 The pins at the ends of the Axeltree is called Linch pins. 1682Providence Rec. (1894) VI. 93 Jn ye Parlor 3 Cart boxes, i lince pinn & a washer 00–01–00. 1696Phillips, Lins-pin. See Linch-pin. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 5 One of the linch-pins that kept the wheel on the axletree. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 441 If the rogue..Left out his linchpin, or forgot his tar. 1847Halliwell, Link-pins. Linch-pins are called also link-pins and lin-pins in the provinces. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. vi. (ed. 3) 137 There was the good old custom of taking the linchpins out of the farmers' and bagmen's gigs at the fairs. 1860Emerson Cond. Life Consid. Wks. (Bohn) II. 418 But who dares draw out the linchpin from the wagon-wheel.
Hence linch-pinned a., having linch-pins.
1893H. J. Moule Old Dorset 109 Rough little cars, with wheels loosely linch-pinned.
Add: Also 20– linchpin, lynchpin. 2. fig. A person or thing vital to an enterprise; a key component or governing principle.
1954M. Muggeridge Diary 5 Jan. in Like it Was (1981) 457 Tony Powell agreed with me that the death of Duff Cooper removed linchpin in particular social set. 1974Nature 27 Sept. 363/2 He follows Holmes..in treating the Earth as a machine and making this, not the stratigraphical record, the linch-pin of his arguments. 1978Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. 1c/2 The shuttle is the linchpin of Uganda's economic relationship with the west. 1981N. & Q. June 221/1 He is really the linchpin of a criminal empire. 1988New Scientist 19 Nov. 42/1 The lynchpin of the debate is whether the characteristics that lungfishes and amphibians share are specialised characters of real evolutionary significance. 1994Washington Post 23 Aug. a1/1 DNA fingerprinting is likely to be the linchpin of the prosecution's case. |