| 释义 |
pin-head|ˈpɪnhɛd|
Also pinhead.
[f. pin n. + head n.1]
1. a. The head of a pin, a pin's head. Used as a type of something of very small size or value; and applied to things resembling a pin's head, as small grains, etc.
1662R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §86. 116 No more then a pin-head, and not a great one neither, but about one quarter of a grain. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., It is not worth a pin-head. 1876tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6) 99 Round spots of the size of a pin-head or lentil. 1892Walsh Tea (Philad.) 74 The product of the first crop [of Gunpowder tea] is sometimes known as ‘Pinhead’, from its extremely small, globular and granulated appearance. 1894Daily News 11 June 6/2 To the majority..it matters not a pin⁓head whether the Poems were the work of Ossian, the son of Fingal,..or of a James MacPherson. 1904Longm. Mag. Dec. 185 There can be no joy in always making the same pinhead by machinery. 1951J. Cleary in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories 439 The street lights are on, yellow pin-heads climbing the hill from the bay road. 1976E. Ward Hanged Man xxvii. 168 Pubs known as ‘happy’, where a development of lysergic acid..is on sale as purple pinheads—a microdot of LSD embedded in plastic, sold for {pstlg}1.
b. attrib. Resembling a pin's head; very small and of rounded form; also fig.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 23 The other seldom knows any⁓thing beyond the pin-head sphere of his daily task. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. iii. (1885) 77 His sharp-nose and pin-head eyes. 1880Bookseller 3 Feb. 236 Most of the covers so much admired for the ‘pin-head’ grain were really seal-skin and not morocco. 1963Times 30 Apr. 13/4 The many heavy lorries which, even though they may use their headlamps in the country, only have one pin-head size nearside sidelamp in the town, or perhaps a single flickering tail lamp. 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 55/2 In cases of the ‘pin head’ type of opacity there may be a slight drop in the transfer factor of the lung. 1974D. Seaman Bomb that could Lip-Read xvii. 168 The pinhead microphone is set into the head of the explosive.
c. Applied to a pattern of small dots on cloth, or to the cloth itself. Also ellipt., a garment having such a pattern.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 220/1 French Sanitary Suspenders{ddd}cream, blue, green, etc., with very fine pinhead dots of contrasting colors. 1923Daily Mail 12 June 3 (Advt.), Greys are both light and dark, and include pinhead designs, herring-bones and stripes. 1935L. A. G. Strong Tuesday Afternoon i. 11 Those chaps in the city had so successfully turned his blue pinhead that several people had..thought it was brand new. 1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin iv. 27 He wore a well-cut Berlin suit of English pinhead worsted.
2. A part of a plough: see quot., and cf. quot. 1727 s.v. pin-hole 1.
1805Dickson Pract. Agric. I. Plate vii. 40 Pin head for regulating share, so as to form drains at different depths.
3. The top of the pin or peg at quoits.
1897Crockett Lad's Love xviii, Shouts of triumph as the guide-paper was snatched from the pin-head and buried deep in the clay.
4. A small minnow.
1845S. Judd Margaret i. iv. 18 Minnows and pinheads were flashing and skirting through the clear bright stream.
5. A person with a small head; chiefly fig., a person of little intelligence, a fool. Also attrib. or as adj.
1896Ade Artie i. 3 I've got as much right to go out and do the heavy as any o' you pin-heads. 1909N.Y. Even. Post (semi-weekly ed.) 22 Feb. 6 An innovation in dress that was..said to indicate that the wearer was a ‘pin head’. 1923[see bone n. 3 b]. 1933E. Seago Circus Company 295 Pinheads, freaks in a side-show. 1940Horizon Apr. 236 An opponent particularly dangerous in these times is the near-artist, or Pinhead. 1947H. S. Truman in M. Truman Harry S. Truman (1973) xvii. 349, I am of the opinion that the country has had enough of their pinhead antics. 1973‘M. Yorke’ Grave Matters vii. iii. 118 She's no pin-head—she'd be a match for him intellectually. 1976New Yorker 15 Nov. 23/2 It uses images of physical deformity for their enormous potential of horror, and at the end, when the pinheads and the armless and legless creatures scurry about to revenge themselves on a normal woman.., the film becomes a true nightmare.
Hence ˈpin-ˌheading, the occupation of fitting the heads on pins (as formerly done, when the heads were made separately).
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 361 Three trades..pin-heading, fustian-cutting, and factory work. |