pin-stickingn.
/ˈpɪnˌstɪkɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈpɪnˌstɪkɪŋ/ 1. attributive. Designating or relating to a machine for piercing holes in paper or other material, or for sticking pins to paper. Now rare.
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1856 Sci. Amer. 8 Mar. 203/4 On the 3rd of Jan., 1854, a patent was granted to J. B. Terry, assignee of Harvey, for an improvement in pin-sticking machinery.
1884 Internat. Health Exhib. Official Catal. 118/1 A Pin-sticking Machine, for sticking pins on paper.
1920 Indiana (Pa.) Weekly Messenger 6 May 2/6 Samuel Slocum of Connecticut invented the first pin-sticking machine.
2. The action of sticking pins into a person or thing.In quot. 1962 applied to the sticking of pins into a representation of a particular person, in the belief that it will cause actual pain.
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1866 P. T. Barnum Humbugs of World 311 All manner of tortures were freely applied to force confessions [from suspected witches]... Pin sticking, drowning, starving, the rack, were too common to need details.
1890 Indiana (Pa.) Democrat 15 Oct. Nor shall there be no pin-sticking, pinchin, scratchin, nor no taggin.
1962 H. R. Loyn Anglo-Saxon Eng. (1963) ii. 92 A witch was thrown from London Bridge for pin-sticking.
2003 Boston Herald (Nexis) 26 Sept. e33 The damage he endures goes beyond mere pin sticking—he is torn to shreds by a dough mixer and crushed by an anvil—yet it's far worse for the villains.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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