pawn

verb (used with object)

1. to deposit as security, as for money borrowed, especially with a pawnbroker: He raised the money by pawning his watch.
2. to pledge; stake; risk: to pawn one’s life.

noun

3. the state of being deposited or held as security, especially with or by a pawnbroker: jewels in pawn.
4. something given or deposited as security, as for money borrowed.
5. a person serving as security; hostage.
6. the act of pawning.

noun

1. Chess. one of eight men of one color and of the lowest value, usually moved one square at a time vertically and capturing diagonally.
2. someone who is used or manipulated to further another person’s purposes.

verb (tr)

1. to deposit (an article) as security for the repayment of a loan, esp from a pawnbroker
2. to staketo pawn one’s honour

noun

3. an article deposited as security
4. the condition of being so deposited (esp in the phrase in pawn)
5. a person or thing that is held as a security, esp a hostage
6. the act of pawning

noun

1. a chessman of the lowest theoretical value, limited to forward moves of one square at a time with the option of two squares on its initial move: it captures with a diagonal move onlyAbbreviation: P Compare piece (def. 12)
2. a person, group, etc, manipulated by another

n.1“something left as security,” late 15c. (mid-12c. as Anglo-Latin pandum), from Old French pan, pant “pledge, security,” also “booty, plunder,” perhaps from Frankish or some other Germanic source (cf. Old High German pfant, German Pfand, Middle Dutch pant, Old Frisian pand “pledge”), from West Germanic *panda, of unknown origin. The Old French word is identical to pan “cloth, piece of cloth,” from Latin pannum (nominative pannus) “cloth, piece of cloth, garment” and Klein’s sources feel this is the source of both the Old French and West Germanic words (perhaps on the notion of cloth used as a medium of exchange). n.2lowly chess piece, late 14c., from Anglo-French poun, Old French peon, earlier pehon, from Medieval Latin pedonem “foot soldier,” from Late Latin pedonem (nominative pedo) “one going on foot,” from Latin pes (genitive pedis) “foot” (see foot (n.)). The chess sense was in Old French by 13c. Figurative use, of persons, is from 1580s. v.“to give (something) as security in exchange for,” 1560s, from pawn (n.1). Related: Pawned; pawning.