See also: pincushion and pin cushion

English edit

Noun edit

pin-cushion (plural pin-cushions)

  1. Alternative form of pincushion
    • 1671, [Richard Head], “He is Bound Prentice to a Taylor, the Knavery of that Trade, His Master of a Stitch, He is Turn’d over to a Baker, who Misusing Him He Runeth Away”, in The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants. [] The Second Part. [], London: Printed for Francis Kirkman, [], →OCLC; republished [London]: [s.n.], [1874?], →OCLC, page 113:
      Then for womens cloaths, the cabadge of cloath of ſilver, brancht Sattin, and the like, went for pin-cuſhions, pin-pillows, womens purſes; and if black, Church-wardens capes.
    • 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. [] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume I, Edinburgh: [] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, pages 191–192:
      He was accompanied by the honest Bonnet-maker, who, being, as the reader is aware, a little round man, had planted himself like a pin-cushion, (for he was wrapped in a scarlet cloak, over which he had slung a hawking-pouch,) on the top of a great saddle, which he might be said rather to be perched upon than to bestride.
    • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Two Bed-Chambers”, in Adam Bede [], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 276:
      She could see quite well the pegs in the old painted linen-press on which she hung her hat and gown; she could see the head of every pin on her red cloth pin-cushion; she could see a reflection of herself in the old-fashioned looking-glass, quite as distinct as was needful, considering that she had only to brush her hair and put on her nightcap.
    • 1905, Edith Wharton, chapter XIV, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 528:
      The shabby chest of drawers was spread with a lace cover, and set out with a few gold-topped boxes and bottles, a rose-coloured pin-cushion, a glass tray strewn with tortoise-shell hair[-]pins—he shrank from the poignant intimacy of these trifles, and from the blank surface of the toilet-mirror above them.

Verb edit

pin-cushion (third-person singular simple present pin-cushions, present participle pin-cushioning, simple past and past participle pin-cushioned)

  1. Alternative form of pincushion
    • 2011 June, Mary Tschoi, Erik A. Hoy, Mark S. Granick, “Skin Flaps”, in Deborah S. Hickman Mathis (guest editor), Nancy Girard, editors, Perioperative Nursing Clinics: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, volume 6, number 2, Philadelphia, Pa.: W. B. Saunders Company, Elsevier, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 180:
      A circular island flap may pin-cushion. This complication can be avoided with proper planning.

Anagrams edit