to hinge on
- phrasal verb
- /hɪndʒ ɑn/
- The outcome of the election will hinge on voter turnout.
- success hinges on funding
- hinges on the decision
- hinges on the ability
The shape of tomorrow's Middle East hinges on what happens next.
- The shape of tomorrow's Middle East hinges on what happens next.
- Relationships hinge and pivot on these crucial moments.
- Now everything hinges on how you answer these questions.
- You know, the our wealth rarely hinges on what happens in in Washington.
- It's like, and we're we know that it all hinges on the strength of our community.
- So now I have a whole thesis around I don't think my my whole argument hinges on one base assumption.
- It would appear that the case hinges on whether it was reasonable to take Elon's tweet seriously.
- And he said until you have been in a position where people tell you that your whole career hinges on this moment.
- I'd say probably the main principle that everything else hinges on is that learning is supposed to be effortful.
Examples
-
Well, because everything in his life hinged on this deal.
-
Now everything hinges on how you answer these questions.
-
The two things that this show hinges on are money and death.
-
Everything hinges on this little guy right here.
-
Perhaps it all hinges on tonight.
-
The entire Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.
-
In the end, the future of marriage in America hinges on a handful of moral questions.
Academic text (1996) -
For many adult learners, success may hinge on how well they can advocate for themselves and access social supports.
Academic text (2013) -
The Oil Reserve Board's success will hinge on how the market responds to it.
Academic text (2008) -
Everything hinges on this.
Synonyms
To be decided by another thing, for example the weather
Be affected or decided by something
To depend on something for the result
To be decided by something such as the weather
To depend on something
To depend on something for a result
To depend completely on something for the result
Depend on something that decides the result
How Dependent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to depend on' is directly derivable from combining 'hinge' (to act as a pivot / depend) with the preposition 'on' marking the determining factor. This metaphoric pivoting follows a regular verb + preposition composition and is cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings will generally infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb hinge on comes from a simple image: a door hangs on a small metal hinge, so the door's movement depends on that one part. So when something hinges on another thing it 'depends on' it.