pin-ball orig. U.S.
(ˈpɪnbɔːl)
[f. pin n.1 + ball n.1]
1. A pincushion.
| 1803 E. S. Bowne Girl's Life (1887) 175 We went to a room where they keep their work for sale,—pocket-books, pin balls, [etc.]. 1870 L. M. Alcott Old-Fashioned Girl vi. 76 Her scissors and pin-ball at her side, and her thimble on. 1894 Sarah M. H. Gardner Quaker Idyls vi, I gave him the pinball. 1963 Times 9 Mar. 11/5 Silver-banded pin-balls were then made to hang from the girdle and even Queen Elizabeth herself deigned to accept a New Year gift of a ‘pin pillow embrodred’. |
2. pinball-sight = bead-sight: see bead n. 5 d.
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Pin-ball Sight, (Rifle), another name for the bead-sight; also called pin-head sight. |
3. A game resembling bagatelle, in which small balls are propelled across a sloping surface towards targets which indicate the score when they are hit. Freq. attrib., as pin-ball arcade, pin-ball game, pin-ball machine, pin-ball table.
| 1911 R. Bliss Illustr. Catal. in B. Whitton Bliss Toys & Dollhouses (1979) 27 Pin ball game... One of our popular marble games. 1935 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Apr. 1/7 One of the bills would allow the State..to license claw machine and pinball games. 1936 N.Y. Times 5 Feb. 40/3 Justice Rosenman said he was surprised that the pin-ball machines had been licensed in the first place. 1937 Pop. Mechanics Feb. 278 (heading) Trip 'em; home pin-ball game. 1946 Sun (Baltimore) 30 Dec. 2/3 This ordinance also imposes a license fee on claw machines or pinball machines or similar devices for public amusement, operated through the insertion of a coin or token. 1951 J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye v. 46 We just had..hamburgers and played the pinball machine for a little while. 1959 Times 12 Feb. 10/7 To-day the senators were ringed with juke-boxes, pinball tables, ‘one-armed bandits’, and other coin-operated devices. 1969 N. Cohn Pop from Beginning xix. 170 Kids..like myself, gave their lives to pinball. 1973 M. Amis Rachel Papers 17 It was a month of plonk and coffee-bars, pinball arcades and party-hunts. 1975 R. L. Simon Wild Turkey (1976) i. 4 Gunther lit up like a pinball machine on twenty replays. 1976 Deakin & Willis Johnny go Home iii. 57 Ernie showed Johnny how to fix the machines in the Amusement Arcades, and together they played the pin-ball tables. |