HINGE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Hinge

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/hɪndʒ/ Listen

noun

Hinge n.

The hook with its eye, or the joint, on which a door, gate, lid, etc., turns or swings; a flexible piece, as a strip of leather, which serves as a joint to turn on. "The gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning."

That on which anything turns or depends; a governing principle; a cardinal point or rule; as, this argument was the hinge on which the question turned.

One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. (R.) "When the moon is in the hinge at East." "Nor slept the winds... but rushed abroad."

Hinge joint.

(a)

(Anat.) See Ginglymus.

(b)

(Mech.) Any joint resembling a hinge, by which two pieces are connected so as to permit relative turning in one plane.

To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment.

verb

Hinge v. t. (past & past part. hinged; pres. part. hinging)

To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.

To bend. (Obs.)

Hinge v. i. To stand, depend, hang, or turn, as on a hinge; to depend chiefly for a result or decision or for force and validity; usually with on or upon; as, the argument hinges on this point.

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Etymology of 'Hinge'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Hinge" Quotes from Famous Books

... the ground of a man's joy is often hard to hit. It may hinge at times upon a mere accessory, like the lantern; it may reside, like Dancer's, in the mysterious inwards of psychology. It may consist with perpetual failure, and find exercise in the continued chase. It has so little bond with externals (such as the observer scribbles in his note-book) ...

— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson

... small works the railway of 16 in. gauge, with the 9 lb. rails, is commonly used, and the trucks carry double equilibrium tipping-boxes, containing 9 to 11 cubic feet. These wagons, having tipping-boxes without any mechanical appliances, are very serviceable; since the box, having neither door nor hinge, is not liable ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 • Various

... view. I raised my hand to open the window, knowing that on that action hung, by the merest hair-breadth, my chance of safety. They keep vigilant watch in a House of Murder. If any part of the frame cracked, if the hinge creaked, I was a lost man! It must have occupied me at least five minutes, reckoning by time—five hours, reckoning by suspense—to open that window. I succeeded in doing it silently—in doing it ...

— After Dark • Wilkie Collins

... referred to as the hinge of Africa; throughout the country there are areas of thermal springs and indications of current or prior volcanic activity; Mount Cameroon, the highest mountain in Sub-Saharan west Africa, ...

— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... that Nisida and her companion might have passed on into a room more remote than the one to which that door had admitted them; and he resolved to follow on. Accordingly, he opened the door with such successful precaution that not a sound—not even the creaking of the hinge was the result; and he immediately perceived that there was a thick curtain within; for it will be recollected that this door was behind the drapery of Nisida's bed. At the same time, a light, somewhat subdued by the thick curtain, ...

— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

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