hinge
See also hingê
English
A hinge 1
A hinge 2
Etymology
Middle English henge, from Old English *henge, compare Old English henge- in hengeclif (“overhanging cliff”), hengen (“hanging”). Akin to Low German henge (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), geheng (“hinge”), hengsel (“hinge”), German dialectal hängel (“hook, joint”), German Henkel (“handle, hook”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.
Pronunciation
Noun
hinge (plural hinges)
- A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc. See also pintel.
- A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
- A point in time, on which subsequent events depend.
- (statistics) The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
Synonyms
- (statistics): quartile
Derived terms
- hinge line, hingeline
- hinge termination
- lower hinge
- midhinge
- rehinge
- upper hinge
- hingeable
Translations
device for the pivoting of a door
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philately: paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps — see stamp hinge
- Dutch: gomstrookje (nl)
point in time, on which subsequent events depend
statistics: median of upper or lower half of a batch — see quartile
Verb
hinge (third-person singular simple present hinges, present participle hinging or hingeing, simple past and past participle hinged)
- (transitive) To attach by, or equip with a hinge.
- (intransitive) To depend on something.
- (transitive) archaeology The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.
- The flake hinged at an inclusion in the core.
- (obsolete) To bend.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
Translations
to attach by a hinge
to depend on something