ˈpin-ˌbasket local.
A large ornamental pincushion, with pins of various lengths artistically inserted, so as to resemble a basket; formerly, in some places, presented to the mother of a family on the birth of each child. Hence, the youngest child in a family (in quot. 1794 of an animal).
| 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Pin-basket, the last child a woman bears. 17.. Sir J. Marriot in Dodsley Coll. Poems (1782) IV. 304 Oft be your second race survey'd And oft a new pin-basket made. 1780 Gentl. Mag. L. 77 No less natural is it that the pin-basket of the lawful wife should have the greatest share of the father's affections. 1794 J. Williams Shrove Tuesday, etc. 4 My gay Chanticleer..The pin-basket of my Sultana hen. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pin-basket, the youngest child in a family. |