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Glite Dictionary
🧍 A used person 💰 To give for money 💰 A pledged item ♟️ A chess piece
to pawn

to pawn

55 5.6
Leave something with a shop that lends you money
  • verb
  • /pɔn/
translation icon : empeñar
  • I'll pawn whatever's in my apartment.

And they basically survive by either pickpocketing, going through junk yards and pawning things.

Examples

  • I'd like to pawn these, please.

    Positive I.D. (1986)

  • I pawned it over at Fellman's.

    The Spirit (2008)

  • To raise the $190 (plus tax) required to make this purchase, I pawned my sound equipment.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Then telephones were cut off, a car was repossessed, and books and luggage were pawned or sold.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I decided to pawn my old guitar to get some quick cash.

  • She went to the pawn shop to pawn her gold necklace for a loan.

  • When times were tough, he had to pawn his camera to pay the bills.

Synonyms

to hock
vsto pawn
  • Informal
14 8.7

Give a valuable item to a pawn shop to get money

involves leaving an item with a pawnbroker rather than selling it outright
to collateralize
vsto pawn
  • Formal
3 9.3

To use something valuable as security for a loan

applies more widely to assets and formal loans, not only pawnbroker transactions
to pand
vsto pawn
  • Archaic
9.9

To give something to a pawnshop as security for a loan

is the modern standard expression rather than the older regional or archaic form

Antonyms

to retrieve
226 3.7

To go and get something and bring it back, for example a dog bringing a ball

Idioms

just a pawn
  • Offensive
4 7.7

A person others use to achieve their goals without real power

Compounds

pawn ticket
  • US
1 5.6

A paper receipt showing you left an item at a pawn shop for a loan

How Binding

to mortgage
  • Specialized
25 5.7
to imponed
  • Archaic
9.9
to pawn
55 5.6
to deposit
63 2.2
to offer
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

pawn infinitive
pawned past
pawned past participle
pawing present participle
pawns third person singular

Etymology

The verb pawn comes from the same old word pignus meaning 'pledge', so to pawn something is to leave it with a shop as a promise to get money and later get it back if you pay.