pawn

Noun

pawn (plural pawns)

1. (chess) The most common chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess each side has eight; moves are only forward, and attacks are only forward diagonally or en passant.
2. (colloquial) Someone who is being manipulated or used to some end, usually not the end that individual would prefer.

   Though a pawn of the gods, her departure is the precipitating cause of the Trojan War.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter I:

     “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

See also

Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
king	queen	castle, rook	bishop	knight	pawn

• Pawn (chess) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Appendix:Chess_pieces

Noun

pawn (plural pawns)

1. The state of being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge.

   All our jewellery was in pawn by this stage.

   • Shakespeare

     My life I never held but as a pawn / To wage against thy enemies.

2. An instance of pawning something.
   • Shakespeare

     Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown.

   • John Donne

     As the morning dew is a pawn of the evening fatness, so, O Lord, let this day's comfort be the earnest of to-morrow's.

3. (now rare) An item given as security on a loan, or as a pledge.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
     , New York, 2001, p.106:

     Brokers, takers of pawns, biting userers, I will not admit; yet […] I will tolerate some kind of usery.

   • Francis Bacon

     As for mortgaging or pawning, […] men will not take pawns without use [i.e. interest].

4. (rare) A pawn shop, pawnbroker.

Verb

pawn (third-person singular simple present pawns, present participle pawning, simple past and past participle pawned)

1. To pledge; to stake or wager.
2. To give as security on a loan of money; especially, to deposit (something) at a pawn shop.
   • 1965, Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone

     But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it, babe.

Noun

pawn (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of paan
   • 1892, Chambers's Journal (volume 69, page 320)

     To our English taste, pawn is very offensive; but the natives of India relish it, and regard it as a necessity. It is much eaten by Mohammedans of both sexes, and by the natives of Bengal.

Verb

pawn (third-person singular simple present pawns, present participle pawning, simple past and past participle pawned)

1. (video games) Alternative form of pwn