hinge

Meaning

Noun

1. A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
2. A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.
3. A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
4. A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.
5. The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
6. One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.
7. A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
8. In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not connected to each other.
9. (dialectal) To be in poor health; to be out of sorts.

Verb

1. (transitive) To attach by, or equip with a hinge.
2. (intransitive) To depend on something.
3. (transitive) The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.
4. (obsolete) To bend.
5. To move or already be positioned in such a fashion that it presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.

Synonyms

joint

depend

door hinge

flexible joint

articulation

pivot

loop

➿

node

obvert

rabbet

swivel

swivel joint

turning point

turn round

veer

strap joint

spondyl

swing joint

movable joint

articulatio

pin joint

unsound knot

articulate

hinge line

depend on

gudgeon

harrow

hinges

knuckle-joint

Translations

gond

charnière

bisagra

Scharnier

scharnier

cardine

cerniera

gozne

dobradiça

menteşe

Gelenk

Angel

μεντεσές

hengsel

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: henge

Inherited from Old English: *henġ

Cognate with Old English: henġe-

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Hänge

Cognate with Low German: henge

Cognate with Middle Dutch: henghe

Cognate with Dutch: hengel

Cognate with Danish: hængsel

Cognate with German: Hängel

Cognate with German: Henkel

Cognate with Old English: hōn

In summary

From Middle English henge, from Old English *henġ (“hinge”), compare Old English henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju. Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Dutch heng (“door handle”), Low German henge (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“a hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), geheng (“hinge”), hengsel (“handle”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), German Henkel (“handle, hook”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.