PAWN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Pawn

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/pɔn/ Listen

noun

Pawn n. See Pan, the masticatory.

Pawn n. (Chess) A man or piece of the lowest rank.

Pawn n.

1.

Anything delivered or deposited as security, as for the payment of money borrowed, or of a debt; a pledge. See Pledge, n., 1. "As for mortgaging or pawning,... men will not take pawns without use (i. e., interest)."

2.

State of being pledged; a pledge for the fulfillment of a promise. (R.) "Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown." "As the morning dew is a pawn of the evening fatness."

3.

A stake hazarded in a wager. (Poetic) "My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies."

In pawn, At pawn, in the state of being pledged. "Sweet wife, my honor is at pawn."

Pawn shop, a shop where a pawnbroker does business.

Pawn ticket, a receipt given by the pawnbroker for an article pledged.

verb

Pawn v. t. (past & past part. pawned; pres. part. pawning)

1.

To give or deposit in pledge, or as security for the payment of money borrowed; to put in pawn; to pledge; as, to pawn one's watch.

Synonyms: hock (colloq). "And pawned the last remaining piece of plate."

2.

To pledge for the fulfillment of a promise; to stake; to risk; to wager; to hazard. "Pawning his honor to obtain his lust."

See images of 'Pawn'

Etymology of 'Pawn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pawn" Quotes from Famous Books

... get at any money. Raymond is certain only to have a pound or two on him, if he has as much; the Bank is closed. I have some jewellery by me on which I could easily raise ten or twelve pounds, but the pawn-shops are not open on Sundays. What am I to do? Can you not wait ...

— A Girl Among the Anarchists • Isabel Meredith

... ball with the eye of an eagle, but without straining; I played with the precision of a man with an unerring system, though my selections were really made quite at random; and I handled my bets with the sureness and swift dexterity with which a chess-master places his pawn or piece in position to ...

— Under the Andes • Rex Stout

... it to him. There was a general feeling that I didn't know what I wanted—house or flat, north or south of the Park, all the rest of it—; they said there would be a scandal if I employed a young maid, I couldn't afford two, and an old one would pawn my clothes to buy gin. I am quoting your husband now; I know nothing of business. Every one agreed, too, that I must have a drain of some kind. Would you say it took long to find a bed-sitting room ...

— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... said a word, nor moved. Sir Tancred was trying to see how to work the affair on seven shillings, and debating whether to call in the help of the police. Instinct assured him that he had no time to lose, no time to walk to Beachley and pawn his watch, that he must not lose sight of them, and in delicate matters he relied chiefly on instinct. Mr. Biggleswade would not have looked so triumphant, had not the 4000 pound reward satisfied him; it seemed likely that ...

— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson

... centuries, to our own contemporary. Inherited qualities move along their several paths not unlike the pieces in the game of chess. Sometimes the character of the son can be traced directly to that of the father or of the mother, as the pawn's move carries him from one square to the next. Sometimes a series of distinguished fathers follows in a line, or a succession of superior mothers, as the black or white bishop sweeps the board on his own color. ...

— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

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