The AI-powered English dictionary
plural linchpins
A pin inserted through holes at the end of an axle or shaft, so as to secure a wheel or shaft-mounted device. quotations examples
In ij camellis ferri vocatis lynspins emptis pro carectis iiijd.
1376–7, Compotus Roll Hyde Manor (In the manuscript deeds of Westminster Abbey)
Every design that villany could suggest was had recourse to in the hopes of nobbling Wild Dayrell; but never being left for an hour by either his trainer or jockey, he escaped the intended “coopering,” even when the lynchpins of the wheels of his van had been tampered with.
1864 June, Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 8, page 110
(figuratively) A central cohesive source of stability and security; a person or thing that is critical to a system or organisation. quotations examples
What is difficult to appreciate, however, is the discrepancy between his statement to the 'Manchester Guardian' correspondent and his known abhorance for party politics, which is the lynchpin of modern democracy.
1958, The Eastern Economist
Community nurses have been described as the lynchpins of palliative care in the community.
2013, Dvaid Sines, Community and Public Health Nursing, page 2006
third-person singular simple present linchpins, present participle linchpinning, simple past and past participle linchpinned
(transitive, intransitive) To adopt as, or serve as, a central cohesive source of stability and security. quotations examples
The poems turn fear of individual death into an audit of the costs of an aristocratic status quo which is linchpinned by a monarchy indulging in paradigms of social redress that have become cosmetic, opportunities for self-display rather than genuine justice.
2013, Christine Chism, Alliterative Revivals, page 238