Meaning

A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc..

Definitions by Sense

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. (statistics) 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.

Example Sentences

The massy portals of the churches swung creaking on their hinges; and some lay dead on the pavement.

The pedicel of the pollinium is articulated as before by a hinge to the disc; it can move freely only in one direction owing to one end of the disc being upturned.

This argument was the hinge on which the question turned.

But let me say, with all deference, that these positions do not appear to me to touch the hinge of the argument before us.

These grown-up children were at that hinge of life when parents must begin to shrink and fold.

If when the Moon is in the Hinge at East, / The Birth breaks forward from its native rest; / Full Eighty Years, if you two Years abate, / This Station gives, and long defers its Fate

In ruine reconcil'd: nor slept the winds / Within thir stony caves, but rush'd abroad / From the four hinges of the world, and fell

Games can hinge on the sort of controversial decision made by Taylor in the 10th minute. After Rivière collected Gabriel Obertan’s pass and sashayed beyond Daley Blind he drew the United centre-half into a rash, clumsy challenge but, puzzlingly, Taylor detected no penalty.

Word Forms

• hinges
• hinging
• hingeing
• hinged

Synonyms for hinge

Related Words

When Should You Use Hinge?

Use hinge when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions