pawn

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Something given as security for a loan; a pledge or guaranty.
2. n. The condition of being held as a pledge against the payment of a loan: jewels in pawn.
3. n. A person serving as security; a hostage.
4. n. The act of pawning.
5. v. To give or deposit (personal property) as security for the payment of money borrowed.
6. v. To risk; hazard: pawn one's honor.
7. pawn off To dispose or get rid of deceptively: tried to pawn off the fake gemstone as a diamond.
8. n. Games A chess piece of lowest value that may move forward one square at a time or two squares in the first move, capture other pieces only on a one-space diagonal forward move, and be promoted to any piece other than a king upon reaching the eighth rank.
9. n. A person or an entity used to further the purposes of another: an underdeveloped nation that was a pawn in international politics.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Something given or deposited as security, as for money borrowed; security; pledge.
2. n. A pledge or promise.
3. n. A gage; a challenge.
4. n. The condition of being pledged or held as security, as for the payment of a debt or the fulfilment of a promise, etc.: as, to be in pawn or at pawn.
5. n. A pawnshop; a pawnbroker's establishment.
6. n. At pawn, in pawn, pledged; hence, laid away; not available.
7. To give or deposit in pledge, or as security for the payment of money borrowed; pledge.
8. To pledge for the fulfilment of a promise.
9. n. A piece of the lowest rank and value at chess. See chess.
10. n. Marked pawn. See marked.
11. n. A peacock; in heraldry, a peacock used as a bearing.
12. n. Mast, or similar food for animals. Also spelled pawne.
13. n. A gallery.
14. n. Same as pan.
15. To put up as collateral: hypothecate, as stock for a loan.

Wiktionary

1. n. The most common chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess each side has eight; moves are only forward, attacks are only forward diagonally or en passant.
2. n. Someone who is being manipulated or used to some end, usually not the end that individual would prefer.
3. n. The state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.
4. n. An instance of pawning something.
5. n. An item given as security on a loan, or as a pledge.
6. n. A pawn shop, pawnbroker.
7. v. To render one's opponent a mere pawn, especially in a real-time strategy games.
8. v. To pledge; to stake or wager.
9. v. To give as security on a loan of money; especially, to deposit (something) at a pawn shop.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. See pan, the masticatory.
2. n. A man or piece of the lowest rank.
3. n. Anything delivered or deposited as security, as for the payment of money borrowed, or of a debt; a pledge. See pledge, n., 1.
4. n. State of being pledged; a pledge for the fulfillment of a promise.
5. n. A stake hazarded in a wager.
6. v. To give or deposit in pledge, or as security for the payment of money borrowed; to put in pawn; to pledge.
7. v. To pledge for the fulfillment of a promise; to stake; to risk; to wager; to hazard.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an article deposited as security
2. n. a person used by another to gain an end
3. n. (chess) the least powerful piece; moves only forward and captures only to the side; it can be promoted to a more powerful piece if it reaches the 8th rank
4. v. leave as a guarantee in return for money
5. n. borrowing and leaving an article as security for repayment of the loan