Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words (original) (raw)

kingpin

noun

    1. the pin
      at the center; the number five pin.
  2. Informal. the person of chief importance in a corporation, movement, undertaking, etc.
  3. Informal. the chief element of any system, plan, or the like.
  4. either of the pins that are a part of the mechanism for turning the front wheels in some automotive steering systems.

/ ˈkɪŋˌpɪn /

noun

  1. the most important person in an organization
  2. the crucial or most important feature of a theory, argument, etc
  3. Also called (Brit)swivel pin
    a pivot pin that provides a steering joint in a motor vehicle by securing the stub axle to the axle beam
  4. tenpin bowling
    the front pin in the triangular arrangement of the ten pins
  5. (in ninepins) the central pin in the diamond pattern of the nine pins

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Word History and Origins

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Example Sentences

While the kingpins have fled, many of those involved in manufacturing and smuggling the drug remain inside the country, she said.

“Does he want to send in more DEA guys? More military? To go after kingpins again? Or go after shipments of the precursor chemicals coming in from China?”

The old kingpins are locked up, their sons vying for control.

Prior to Gutierrez-Ochoa there has been a long history of Mexican kingpins faking death to avoid capture, with El Mencho himself rumored killed on several occasions.

It said, in so many words, they had been wrongly accused of being “kingpins” and did not deserve their 20-year sentences.