pinhead
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
- pin-head
- pin head
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɪn.hɛd/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪnhɛd
Noun
pinhead (plural pinheads)
- The head of a pin. (Frequently used in size comparisons.)
- 1810, Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry, Vol. 4, Bell & Bradfute, page 602:
- The moment the nitre was red hot, the coal, previously reduced to small pieces of the size of a pinhead, was projected in portions of one or two grains at a time…
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203:
- Settlements some centuries old, and still no bigger than pinheads on the untouched expanse of their background.
- 1810, Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry, Vol. 4, Bell & Bradfute, page 602:
- (slang) A foolish or stupid person.
- Synonyms: doofus, dumbbell, dunce; see also Thesaurus:idiot
- 1977, “Pinhead”, in Leave Home, performed by Ramones:
- I don't want to be a pinhead no more / I just met a nurse that I could go for
- 1990, Kindergarten Cop:
- My daddy repairs cars driven by women who are pinheads.
- 1998, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, page 212:
- Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pinhead," kept asking them all what they were sniggering at.
- (slang) A telemark skier.
- (slang, medicine) A human head that is unusually tapered or small, often due to microcephaly, or a person with that trait. Often promoted in freak shows as "human pinheads".
- 1939, Amram Scheinfeld, Morton David Schweitzer, You and Heredity, Frederick A. Stokes Co., page 155:
- The microcephalic idiot is an unfortunate with a "pinhead," sometimes exhibited as a "what's-it" in circus side-shows, whose mental age never goes beyond that of an imbecile.
- 1943, Oliver Ramsay Pilat, Sodom by the Sea: An Affectionate History of Coney Island, Garden City Publishing, page 187:
- Zip the What-Is-It was simply a Negro idiot. […] For half an hour at a time, David Belasco used to watch Zip at Coney Island. The producer insisted he saw signs of intelligence in the pinhead […]
- (slang, pet stores) A newborn cricket used as food for pets.
- 1994, Raymond E. Hunziker, Leopard Geckos, Publisher, →ISBN, page 16:
- A newly hatched gecko will need pretty small crickets, but you will not have to go all the way down to pinheads.
- 2000, Manny Rubio, Scorpions: Everything About Purchase, Care, Feeding, and Housing, Barron's Educational Series, →ISBN, page 70:
- Crickets can be purchased in many sizes from newborns ("pinheads") to adults.
- (mycology) The immature juvenile fruiting body of a mushroom prior to its gills opening.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
head of a pin
|
foolish or stupid person
telemark skier
|
unusually small head
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
