pawn

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
“
I recently heard a theory that in team matches, you shouldn't play risky opening lines because sacrificing a pawn is actually sacrificing a pawn that belongs to the team!

View all »
Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun Something given as security for a loan; a pledge or guaranty.
  2. noun The condition of being held as a pledge against the payment of a loan: jewels in pawn.
  3. noun A person serving as security; a hostage.
6 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (22)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • In a car pawn, a car is used as collateral to receive a loan. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • Chenobyl, Hiroshima et al and come away feeling understandably sceptical as to whether science is indeed objective and neutral, or at least partially a pawn which is selectively channeled by powerful and wealthy groups within society. —  RealClimate
  • By move 20 Aronian was in terrible shape and had to give up a pawn, and Radjabov had no trouble with the technical task. —  The Chess Mind
  • I created a passed pawn, and when my opponent moved his King over to attack it, I was able to fork his King and Rook with a Bishop check, and he resigned immediately. —  United States Chess Federation
  • If another player lands on the same square as your pawn or uses a Sorry! card, then your pawn is sent back to start.
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 121 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

rook ·  plaything ·  dupe

Used in the same contextWord Family

pawn:   pawns ·  pawning
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English paun, from Old French pan, of Germanic origin .
  2. Middle English, from Old French pedon, paon, from Medieval Latin pedō, pedōn-, foot soldier, from Late Latin, one who has wide feet, from Latin pēs, ped-, foot; see ped- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English pawne, from Old French pan, a pawn, gage, pledge; cf. OFries. pand = Dutch pand = Middle Low German pant = Old High German Middle High German phant, pfant, German pfand = Icelandic pantr = Swedish Danish pant, a pledge, pawn. The Old French term is usually identified with Old French pan, French pan, a piece of a garment, a lappet, panel, pane (from Latin pannus, a cloth: see pane, panel), on the supposition that it referred orig. to an article of clothing left as a pawn; but this connection seems to be forced, and is rendered still more doubtful by the relation of penny, Anglo-Saxon pending, etc., to the Teutonic words above cited: see penny.
  2. from Middle English *pawnen, from Old French paner, panner, take a pledge, seize, take, pawn; from the noun.
  3. from Middle English pawn, paune, pown, poune, poun, from Old French paon, poon, properly peon, a pawn, = Spanish peon, a foot-soldier, a pawn (later English peon), = Portuguese pião = Italian pedone, a foot-soldier, pedona, a pawn, from Middle Latin pedo(n-), a foot-soldier, an athlete (cf. pedinus, a pawn), in Late Latin one who has broad feet (in L. only as a surname), from Latin pes (ped-) = English foot: see foot. Cf. peon, pioneer.
  4. from Old French paon, pavon, French paon, from Latin pavo(n-), a peacock: see Pavo and pea.
  5. Prob. a variant of pane.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/pɔn/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

depend · weirdly · quarantine · hussar · waterman

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich