Oxford English and Spanish Dictionary, Synonyms, and Spanish to English Translator

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Meaning of hinge in English:

hinge

Pronunciation /hɪn(d)ʒ/

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Translate hinge into Spanish

noun

1A movable joint or mechanism on which a door, gate, or lid swings as it opens and closes or which connects linked objects.
‘He had only time to back away before the thick wooden doors swung open, hinges protesting loudly.’
- ‘The door stood open, its hinges and locking mechanisms smashed.’
- ‘There was a knock on my door, and it swung open on its hinges.’
- ‘He stroked the metal surface, and not knowing how it all happened, slowly caused the door to swing on its hinges and open.’
- ‘Alice closed the door almost all the way but had to stop as she heard the front door swing open on squeaky hinges.’
- ‘I threw the weight of my body against the door and forced it to swing open on its hinges.’
- ‘Bruth swung the door open on its hinge, and followed Kaltag outside.’
- ‘The device covers the gap created on a door hinge when it is open and prevents fingers being trapped in the door.’
- ‘It swung open on oiled hinges to reveal two rooms.’
- ‘Eventually, the creaky hinges swung open with a younger, brown haired, freckled boy standing just inside, looking at me.’
- ‘The door squeaked on its hinges and opened to a musty hall.’
- ‘He was surprised to see the house as it was; curtains flying all over the place, doors swinging on their hinges.’
- ‘The door swung off the hinges and landed on the floor with a crash, exposing 3 Nazi officials.’
- ‘As Teta carefully pulled the double doors open, their hinges squeaked loudly.’
- ‘The door with different hinges opened suddenly, revealing Armand and behind him a stone spiral staircase leading upwards.’
- ‘The fanfare began, and the elaborate gold embroidered doors opened, the hinges creaking from the weight.’
- ‘She put a finger to her lips toward him, and then quietly pushed the door open on well-oiled hinges.’
- ‘With a slow creaking of hinges, the door opened to admit cold air and a midnight visitor.’
- ‘Gloriana pointed to the window swinging open on its hinge.’
- ‘He flipped the hinge and the door opened, revealing several small boxes.’
1. 1.1Biology A natural joint which performs a function similar to that of a man-made hinge, for example that of a bivalve shell.
  ‘The hinge ligament of bivalve shell is an example of a complex development.’
  ‘Your elbow joints are simple hinges, and they can bend only one way and on a direct line.’
  ‘A good analog of the decrescent side is the interarea of brachiopods or the hinge area of bivalves.’
  ‘Dr. Borje Walldius in Sweden replaced knees in 1953 with a simple hinge joint but knees are complex and these replacements often loosened.’
  ‘With pushdowns, make sure the only things moving are your forearms via the hinge joint at your elbows.’
2. 1.2A central or pivotal point or principle on which everything depends.
  ‘this period can be called the hinge of history’
  ‘Cop Rock represents a hinge, a pivotal point on the door of possibility.’
  ‘The Association was formed at a fateful turning of the hinge of our strategic history - the fall of Saigon in 1975.’
  ‘I think it's important to recognize that we are at the hinge of history.’
  ‘These are at least nation-scale questions, ones whose answers turn the hinges of history.’
  ‘Only now are we beginning to sense a hinge in history, a time when the earth is beginning to move beneath our feet.’
  ‘So the 1530's is indeed the hinge decade for English history.’
  ‘He was also the hinge and the catalyst for the largest covert operation in history - the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.’
  ‘It takes incredible faith to lead during hinge points of history.’

verbhinges, hingeing, hinging, hinged

[with object]

1Attach or join with or as if with a hinge.
‘the ironing board was set into the wall and hinged at the bottom’
- ‘Some take the form of little chests of drawers, others have hinged lids.’
- ‘Another option is to hinge the top part so that the seat becomes a lid that you just lift up.’
- ‘There were two hinged wooden boxes in the closet under the stairs.’
- ‘The permanent sign is hinged so the words ‘Road Blocked’ can be displayed when needed.’
- ‘The tailgate is unusual in being hinged deep into the roof and having a separately opening window.’
- ‘The ‘Blue Streak’ was a hinged shoulder holster that allowed one to fire at anyone who grabbed from behind without even removing the gun from the holster.’
- ‘There were hinged shutters to fasten against the occasional dust storm.’
- ‘The hood - like that on the Solstice - is front hinged.’
- ‘The ship is optimised for roll-on/roll-off operations with all RO-RO decks fixed and a combination of fixed and hinged RO-RO ramps.’
- ‘Meet the trapdoor spiders, famed for their silk-lined burrows complete with emergency exits, hinged trapdoors and careful camouflage.’
- ‘The upper beak is hinged dorsally on a naso-frontal hinge.’
- ‘As for the bottom metal unit, it's a classy, all-steel affair with a straddle-type hinged floorplate.’
- ‘The blinds are hinged so they fold compactly against the piers.’
- ‘For ground loading and unloading the side panels of the rear fuselage are hinged for outward opening to provide wider access.’
- ‘These hydraulically operated tools, which mount on the side of the tractor, are hinged for raising or lowering.’
- ‘The cover of the crate should be hinged and screwed on, not nailed.’
- ‘I don't even think my brain is properly hinged inside my cranium at this moment, so how am I supposed to think?’
- ‘The framed certificate is stationery while the wedding picture is hinged.’
- ‘The plastron is often reduced and cruciform in shape and may be hinged.’
hinged, jointed, segmented
View synonyms
1. 1.1no object, with adverbial of direction (of a door or part of a structure) hang and turn on a hinge.
  ‘the skull's jaw hinged down’
  ‘When the gallery is open, the door will hinge out into the foyer so that it offers another perspective on the building.’
  ‘The only way in and out was through two huge doors that hinged opposite each other.’
  ‘There was a knock on the door, which hinged open momentarily.’
  ‘James could only stare at Ryouji with his jaw hinging like a gaping fish.’
  ‘Rudi Uhlenhaut designed the Mercedes 300 SL with the famous gull-wing doors that opened up sideways, hinged in the centre of the roof.’
  ‘Our living room window is very narrow and hinged at the top.’
  ‘Axles and bracing struts were hinged to the bottom longerons of the fuselage.’
  ‘The cardboard was hinged to the table on one side so that it could flap forward toward the infant, and then all the way back, away from the infant.’
  ‘For instance the tailgate top window is hinged providing an opening for smaller items to be loaded, while the tailgate itself has good handgrips.’
  ‘Their tails are hinged at the base and flick up, flick up, when they land and look.’
  ‘The 140A has the tapered, single-strut, all-metal wing of the 150, but the flaps are hinged, not Fowler flaps.’
  ‘The K - 2 is hinged ingeniously on the front wheel assembly, where the wheels cant in the direction of the turn.’
  ‘The corvus (Latin for crow) was a plank that was hinged at one end to the side of a Roman ship, and that had a heavy spike in the other end.’
  ‘The tail fins are hinged and have a curved surface, which results in the missile spinning in flight for aerodynamic stabilisation.’
  ‘The two levers are hinged in the middle by the wrists and the hands.’
2. 1.2hinge onno object Depend entirely on.
  ‘the future of the industry could hinge on the outcome of next month's election’
  ‘Selling is a strange phenomenon because being successful financially in this industry hinges upon your individual performance.’
  ‘The success of the Raiders hinges largely on the performance of their reconfigured defensive line.’
  ‘Any innovator will tell you that success hinges less on getting everything right than on how you handle getting things wrong.’
  ‘Indemnity hinges upon the principal continuing in business and exploiting the agent's connection.’
  ‘While the success of government hinges largely on programming, governance depends on relationship building.’
  ‘However, no one is asking the fundamental question on which everything hinges: Why?’
  ‘Now the government is drafting an update on the progress made, on which hinges the next loan disbursement of $400 million.’
  ‘Your emotions are hinged upon how this guy treats you.’
  ‘This is when you are working to build the basic frame on which to hinge your life.’
  ‘The famous device of conflict upon which all stories are supposed to hinge starts within the writer.’
  depend, hang, rest, turn, pivot, centre, be based, be contingent, be dependent, be conditional
  View synonyms