Category:Hinge

Hinge, n. Etym: [OE. henge, heeng; akin to D. heng, LG. henge, Prov. E. hingle a small hinge; connected with hang, v., and Icel. hengja to hang. See Hang.]

1. The hook with its eye, or the joint, on which a door, gate, lid, etc., turns or swings; a flexible piece, as a strip of leather, which serves as a joint to turn on. The gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning. Milton.

2. That on which anything turns or depends; a governing principle; a cardinal point or rule; as, this argument was the hinge on which the question turned.

3. One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. [R.] When the moon is in the hinge at East. Creech. Nor slept the winds. . . but rushed abroad. Milton. Hinge joint. (a) (Anat.) See Ginglymus. (b) (Mech.) Any joint resembling a hinge, by which two pieces are connected so as to permit relative turning in one plane. -- To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment. Tillotson.

hinge Hinge, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hinged; p. pr. & vb. n. Hinging.]

1. To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.

2. To bend. [Obs.] Shak.

hinge Hinge, v. i.

Defn: To stand, depend, hang, or turn, as on a hinge; to depend chiefly for a result or decision or for force and validity; -- usually with on or upon; as, the argument hinges on this point. I. Taylor.

-

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Hinge - (Heb. tsir ), that on which a door revolves. "Doors in the East turn rather on pivots than on what we term hinges. In Syria, and especially in the Hauran, there are many ancient doors, consisting of stone slabs with pivots carved out of the same piece inserted in sockets above and below, and fixed during the building of the house" (Proverbs 26:14).