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pinfall

pinfall

1 7.7
A wrestling victory when one wrestler holds an opponent's shoulders on the mat
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪnˌfɔl/
  • Jargon
translation icon : victoria por cuenta
  • Winner by pinfall: Antonio Cesaro
  • wins via pinfall
  • pinfall victory
  • pinfall to retain

Examples

  • Winners by pinfall: Natalya, Kaitlyn, and Layla.

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  • Pinfall and victory to Ryback.

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  • Winner by Pinfall: Big Show Match

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  • The first diva to score a pinfall... or submission will be declared the winner...

  • Pinfall and victory to Team Rhodes Scholars.

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  • Winner by pinfall: Damien Sandow

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  • Punk won via pinfall when he ran the Irishman into an unprotected turnbuckle and got the pin.

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  • No Way Out retains the IC title in a steel cage match vs. Del Rio via pinfall.

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  • He scored a first-period pinfall victory in his return to the mat in the Hawks' opener last week.

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  • Big Cass achieved victory by scoring a pinfall against his opponent during the match.

Synonyms

pin
vspinfall
12 6.2

Holding an opponent's shoulders on the mat long enough to win a wrestling match

is the victory or outcome resulting from that holding action
fall
vspinfall
  • Specialized
11 7.3

A wrestling win by holding an opponent's shoulders on the mat

is the victory itself rather than the action that causes it

Surface Forms

pinfall singular
pinfalls plural

Morphology

pinfall = pin + fall (semi-transparent) = pin + fall

The components 'pin' and 'fall' are identifiable, but 'fall' meaning 'defeat' is a specialized wrestling term, making the compound somewhat sport-specific.

Etymology

Pinfall comes from the two simple parts pin and fall, where pin means 'to hold' someone down and fall means 'a loss' or going 'down'. So in wrestling a pinfall is a win by holding an opponent's shoulders on the mat until they are counted, which makes the meaning easy to remember.