nine·pin

(nīn′pĭn′)

1. ninepins(used with a sing. or pl. verb) A bowling game in which nine wooden pins are the target.

2. A wooden pin used in the game of ninepins.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ninepins

(ˈnaɪnˌpɪnz)

1. (Bowls & Bowling) (functioning as singular) another name for skittles. See skittle²

2. go down like ninepins (of each of a group of people) to become ill very easily and quickly

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nine•pins

(ˈnaɪnˌpɪnz)

n.

1. (used with a sing. v.) tenpins played without the head pin.

2. ninepin, a pin used in this game.

[1570–80]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

ninepins - a bowling game that is played by rolling a bowling ball down a bowling alley at a target of nine wooden pins

skittles

bowling - a game in which balls are rolled at an object or group of objects with the aim of knocking them over or moving them

Translations

لُعْبَة الكُرة والتِّسع قناني

kuželky

keglespil

Kegeln

jeu de quilles

kugli

keiluspil

birilli

kėgliai

ķegļu spēle

dokuz kuka oyunu

九柱戏

ninepins

[ˈnaɪnpɪnz] NPL (= game) → juego m de bolos; (= objects) → bolos mpl
to go down like ninepins → caer como bolos en bolera

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ninepins

n (= game) → Kegeln nt; to go down like ninepins (fig) → wie die Fliegen umfallen (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

ninepins

[ˈnaɪnˌpɪnz] npl → birilli mpl
to go down like ninepins → cadere come birilli

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

ninepins

(ˈnainpinz) noun singular

a form of bowling in which nine bottle-shaped objects are knocked over with a ball. a game of ninepins; Ninepins is a very good game.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

On every side the fighting-men of Bekwando went down like ninepins - about half a dozen only sprang forward for a hand-to-hand fight, the remainder, with shrieks of despair, fled back to the shelter of the forest, and not one of them again ever showed a bold front to the white man.

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Here was no commonplace, no Oakland Estuary, no weary round of throwing newspapers at front doors, delivering ice, and setting up ninepins. All the world was mine, all its paths were under my feet, and John Barleycorn, tricking my fancy, enabled me to anticipate the life of adventure for which I yearned.

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Yours mayn't; but I strongly suspect yours of being not Socialists, but ninepins, which you have constructed for your own amusement.

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There won't be no trains running along this line come many a week, and as for trees - why, it's as though some one had been playing ninepins in Squire Fellowes's park.

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The country through which the road meandered, was rich and beautiful; the weather very fine; and for many miles the Kaatskill mountains, where Rip Van Winkle and the ghostly Dutchmen played at ninepins one memorable gusty afternoon, towered in the blue distance, like stately clouds.

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Treat men as pawns and ninepins and you shall suffer as well as they.

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You all go over like ninepins - one after the other.

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Dominic's brawny arm would be seen describing deliberately an ample horizontal gesture, a dignified sweep, and Cesar would go over suddenly like a ninepin - which was funny to see.

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As I did so, the Thing rose straight at me in a leap, and I was knocked over like a ninepin. It clutched at me with its crippled hand, and struck me in the face.

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From the proportions of a mere point it advanced to the shape of a ninepin, and was soon perceived to be a man in black, arriving from the direction of Flintcomb-Ash.

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And there's no more benevolence bubbling out of him, than out of a ninepin.'

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The old gentleman is merely shaken and has his internal feathers beaten up, the cushion is restored to its usual place beside him, and the old lady, perhaps with her cap adjusted and perhaps not, is planted in her chair again, ready to be bowled down like a ninepin.

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