Contextualizebeta

hinge

noun
/ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/

Etymology

From Middle English henge (“hinge”), from Old English *henġ or *henġe (“hinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju or *hangī; compare Old English *henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”). Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Low German henge (“hook, hinge, handle”), Dutch heng (“moving leaf of a hinge”), geheng (“hinge”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), hengsel (“handle”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), German Henkel (“handle, hook”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), Faroese hongsl (“hinge”), Icelandic hengsli (“hinge”), Norwegian hengsel (“hinge”), Swedish hängsle (“suspender”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.

  1. derived from *hangiju✻
  2. inherited from *henġ✻
  3. inherited from henge

Definitions

  1. A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.

    • The massy portals of the churches swung creaking on their hinges; and some lay dead on the pavement.

  2. A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell…

    A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.

    • The pedicel of the pollinium is articulated as before by a hinge to the disc; it can move freely only in one direction owing to one end of the disc being upturned.

  3. A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an…

    A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.

  4. ›+ 12 more definitions

    1. A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.

      • This argument was the hinge on which the question turned.
      • But let me say, with all deference, that these positions do not appear to me to touch the hinge of the argument before us.
      • These grown-up children were at that hinge of life when parents must begin to shrink and fold.

    2. The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.

    3. One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.

      • If when the Moon is in the Hinge at East, / The Birth breaks forward from its native rest; / Full Eighty Years, if you two Years abate, / This Station gives, and long defers its Fate
      • In ruine reconcil'd: nor slept the winds / Within thir stony caves, but rush'd abroad / From the four hinges of the world, and fell

    4. A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into…

      A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.

    5. In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not…

      In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not connected to each other.

    6. To be in poor health

      To be in poor health; to be out of sorts.

    7. To attach by, or equip with a hinge.

    8. To depend on something.

    9. The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across…

      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.

    10. To bend.

      • Be thou a Flatterer now, and ſeeke to thriue / By that which ha's^([sic – meaning has]) vndone thee; hindge thy knee, / And let his very breath whom thou'lt obſerue / Blow off thy Cap: [...]

    11. To move or already be positioned in such a fashion that it presents itself as rotation…

      To move or already be positioned in such a fashion that it presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.

    12. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

alpha hinge, butt hinge, delta hinge, door hinge, flapping hinge, H hinge, hingeable, hingeback, hinge-back tortoise, hinge joint, hingeless, hingelike, hinge line, hingeline, hinge of Africa, hinge on, hinger, hinge termination, hingewise, jonbar hinge, living hinge, lower hinge, midhinge, off one's hinge, rehinge, unhinge, upper hinge, hinge upon, hingey

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at hinge. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01hinge02postage03affixed04enduringly05endure06carry07book

A definitional loop anchored at hinge. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at hinge

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA