Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
💍 A promise ceremony 🧵 Attaching with pins
pinning

pinning

9.9
A public promise between two people to date only each other shown by giving a fraternity pin
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪnɪŋ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : promesa de compromiso
  • After a year of dating, they decided to celebrate their pinning by attending the fraternity's annual banquet.

He's got the same look on his face, but he shows up to this kids pinning and now we know he's changed.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • He's got the same look on his face, but he shows up to this kids pinning and now we know he's changed.

    Film Courage

  • So the notion that so how you come from on your back, but pinning that's like a the has a special meaning.

  • Many students at the university participate in the tradition of pinning, where couples publicly promise to remain exclusive.

  • During the pinning ceremony, he presented her with his fraternity pin as a sign of their commitment to each other.

Surface Forms

pinning singular
pinnings plural

Morphology

pinning = pin (opaque) = pin + ing

Although formed from 'pin' + '-ing', this historical social/ritual sense (a mutual promise/signalling with a pin) is idiomatic and not directly inferable by a typical B1 learner from the base meaning.

Etymology

Pinning comes from an old college custom where someone gave a partner a pin as a sign of commitment; the small metal pin showed the couple were 'promising to date no one else', so the ceremony and that promise became known as pinning.