The hook with its eye, or the joint, on which a door, gate, lid, etc., turns or swings; a flexible piece, as a strip of leather, which serves as a joint to turn on. The gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning. Milton.
That on which anything turns or depends; a governing principle; a cardinal point or rule; as, this argument was the hinge on which the question turned.
One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. [R.] When the moon is in the hinge at East. Creech. Nor slept the winds . . . but rushed abroad. Milton. Hinge joint. (a) (Anat.) See Ginglymus. (b) (Mech.) Any joint resembling a hinge, by which two pieces are connected so as to permit relative turning in one plane. -- To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment. Tillotson.
To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.
To bend. [Obs.] Shak.
To stand, depend, hang, or turn, as on a hinge; to depend chiefly for a result or decision or for force and validity; -- usually with on or upon; as, the argument hinges on this point. I. Taylor
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