linchpin

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“
While the competition, which kicked off Wednesday, offers a variety of tourneys with entry fees as low as $230 (including the casino's cut), the linchpin is the two-day Championship Event, slated for next Thursday and Friday.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A locking pin inserted in the end of a shaft, as in an axle, to prevent a wheel from slipping off.
  2. noun A central cohesive element: Reduced spending is the linchpin of their economic program.

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Examples (42)

  • Secrecy is the linchpin, the key enabling weapon, of all government abuses.
  • If Boston is the hub of the universe, Concord might be considered as the linchpin which holds it on. —  The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • While the competition, which kicked off Wednesday, offers a variety of tourneys with entry fees as low as $230 (including the casino's cut), the linchpin is the two-day Championship Event, slated for next Thursday and Friday. —  Philly.com - Latest Videos
  • Maintaining the impossibly high standards set by previous releases from the Bug and soon to be legendary Burial, label linchpin Kode 9 reverts to the format reserved for his own alchemical productions. —  AvaxHome RSS:
  • Nevertheless, Obama administration officials acknowledge that the push for an overhaul - what Obama calls the linchpin to the country's future financial health - will be complicated and contentious, even though the environment is now more amenable to it. —  Macon Telegraph: Homepage
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English linspin : lins, linchpin (from Old English lynis) + pin, pin (from Old English pinn; see pin).
 

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