1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, i. 4. I do not set my life at a pin's fee.
[?]. Sir Andrew Barton [Child, Ballads, vii. 206]. And tho' he cared not a pin For him and his company.
1633. Marmyon, Fine Company., ii. i. 68. I do not care a pin for her.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 90]. But neither by the Nap, nor Tearing, Was it a Pin the worse for wearing.
c.1707. Durfey, Pills (1707), ii. 112. For her Favour I care not a Pin.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Here's a Pin for that Lye; I'm sure Lyars had need of good Memories.
d.1796. Burns, Poems (Globe), 80. My memory's no worth a preen.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' from the Pink 'Un ['Boycotting the Author'], 44. Not caring a pin if the lotion was whiskey or unsweetened gin.
1887. Stevenson, Underwoods, 'The Scotsman's Return.' A bletherin' clan, no worth a preen, As bad as Smith o' Aiberdeen.
1890. Boldrewood, Squatter's Dream, 157. For two pins I'd put a match in every gunyah on the place.
4. (old: now recognised).—A measure containing four-and-a-half gallons, or the eighth part of a barrel.—B. E. (c.1696).
Verb. (thieves').—To steal; to nab (q.v.).
Phrases:—To be down pin = to be out of sorts; to put in the pin = to stop, arrest, or pull up: as a habit or indulgence; to pin oneself on another = to hang on; to pin down (or to the ground) = (1) to secure, (2) to make sure, and (3) to attack with no chance of escape; pinned to a wife's tail = petticoat-led; to pin one's faith to (or upon one's sleeve) = to trust implicitly: see also Bottle; Merry-pin; Nick.
Pin-basket, subs. phr. (old).—The
youngest child.—Grose (1785).
Pin-buttock, subs. phr. (old).—A
bony rump: with bones like pins
pricking: the reverse of barge-arse
(q.v.).
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 2, 18. It is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks, the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock.
Pin-case (or -cushion), subs. phr.
(venery).—The female pudendum:
cf. pin, subs. 2: see Monosyllable.
Pinch, subs. (common).—1. A dilemma;
a critical situation; a
scrape. Whence, to come to
the pinch = to face the situation;
at a pinch = 'upon a push
or exigence.'—B. E. (c.1696);
Grose (1785).
d.1486. Berners, Froiss. Chron., ii. cxviii. At a pynch a frend is knowen.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, iii. 1. O, the wit of a woman when she is put to the pinch.
1613. Selden, Drayton's Polyolb., xviii. 735. The Norman in this narrow pinch, not so willingly as wisely, granted the desire.
1647. Fletcher, Hum. Lieut, iv. 4. I can lie yet, And swear, too, at a pinch.
1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, i. Where the pinch lay i cannot certainly affirm.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge]. 433. If you want my purse, come and take it: it will not fail you at a pinch.
1880. Glover, Racing Life, 38. It's one of the deadest pinches ever known. I guy or hook it, skedaddle or absquatulate.
2. (racing).—A certainty.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' from the Pink 'Un ['Honest Bill'], 50. The race would be a pinch, Sir, barring accident or spill.
