pivot

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A short rod or shaft on which a related part rotates or swings.
2. n. A person or thing on which something depends or turns; the central or crucial factor.
3. n. The act of turning on or as if on a pivot.
4. n. Basketball A position taken by an offensive player usually facing away from the basket near the foul line to relay passes, attempt a shot, or set screens.
5. n. Basketball The stationary foot around which the ball handler is allowed to pivot without dribbling.
6. v. To mount on, attach by, or provide with a pivot or pivots.
7. v. To cause to rotate, revolve, or turn.
8. v. To turn on or as if on a pivot: "The plot . . . lacks direction, pivoting on Hamlet's incertitude” ( G. Wilson Knight).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A pin on which a wheel or other object turns.
2. n. Milit., the officer or soldier upon whom a line of troops wheels.
3. n. Figuratively, that on which some matter or result hinges or depends; a turning-point.
4. To place on a pivot; furnish with a pivot.
5. To turn or swing on a pivot, or as on a pivot: hinge.

Wiktionary

1. n. A thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.
2. n. Something or someone having a paramount significance in a certain situation.
3. n. Act of turning on one foot.
4. n. A player in with responsibility for co-ordinating their team in a particular jam.
5. v. intransitive To turn on an exact spot.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A fixed pin or short axis, on the end of which a wheel or other body turns.
2. n. The end of a shaft or arbor which rests and turns in a support.
3. n. Hence, figuratively: A turning point or condition; that on which important results depend.
4. n. (Mil.) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place whike the company or line moves around him in wheeling; -- called also pivot man.
5. v. To place on a pivot.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of turning on (or as if on) a pivot
2. n. the person in a rank around whom the others wheel and maneuver
3. n. axis consisting of a short shaft that supports something that turns
4. v. turn on a pivot