ninepins, n. pl.
(ˈnaɪnpɪnz)
[pin n.1 8.]
1. A game in which nine ‘pins’ are set up to be knocked down by a ball or bowl thrown at them.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Quilles, as iouër aux quilles, to play at nine pins. 1610 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady iv. i, Thy dry bones can reach at nothing now, but gords or nine-pinnes. 1647 Peacham Worth of a Penny 31 The most ordinary recreations of the Countrey are football, skales or nine pins, shooting at butts [etc.]. 1663 Pepys Diary 27 May, Afterwards to nine-pins, Creed and I playing against my Lord and Cooke. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull i. iv, You Sot,..you spend your Time at Billiards, Ninepins, or Puppet-shows. 1774 Westm. Mag. II. 315 Swains appeared in fancy dresses, amusing themselves at the game of Ninepins. 1829 Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 4 A little boy was playing nine-pins on the streets of Mentz. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports 511 Skittles, nine pins, and Dutch pins, are modifications of the same game. |
2. The pins with which this game is played; also in
sing. of one of these.
| 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 488 As when Merchants break, o'erthrown Like Nine-pins, they strike others down. 1691 J. Wilson Belphegor iv. iv, 'Tis a wonder, no more follow him: for it is often with Merchants, as Nine-Pins. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1699) 165 Some of these Trees..being big-bellied like Nine-pins. 1794 [see 3]. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 661 The bowl that beats the greater number down Of tottering nine-pins. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xli, When his holiness rolled on the green like a king of the nine-pins. 1864 G. M. Musgrave Ten Days in Fr. Parsonage II. iii. 108 Little urchins..tumbled about like ninepins. |
b. Humorously applied to a child.
| 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Channings II. xix. 289 Little ninepins, would you like to get three-pence? |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
ninepin alley,
ninepin yard;
ninepin high,
ninepin-like adjs.;
ninepin block,
Naut. a block so called from its shape.
| ? 1756 Walpole Lett. to Bentley Aug., The bowling-green..contains no less than four obelisks, as look like a Brobdignag *nine-pin-ally. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 28. ¶4 An alehouse.., with a ninepin alley. |
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship 156 *Nine-pin-blocks. The shells..resemble the shape of a nine-pin... They are used to lead the running ropes in a horizontal direction. 1841 Dana Seaman's Man. 116 Ninepin Block, a block in the form of a ninepin, used for a fair leader in the rail. |
| 1710 Brit. Apollo No. 100. 2/2 Little dirty Brats scarce *Nine-pin high. |
| 1704 Phil. Trans. XXV. 1547 The *Nine-pin like Particles. |
| 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4525/3 Bowling-Greens, and *Nine-pin Yards. |