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What is "linchpin"

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linchpin
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
linchpin
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Apparently she accepted that she was the primary caretaker of her children and the linchpin of family life.
▪ Consumer goods industries were the linchpin, and these were overwhelmingly located in the West Midlands and in and around Greater London.
▪ Dalton Baldwin's linchpin accompaniments are all that one could hope for in terms of grace and humour.
▪ Divas are often the financial linchpins for opera productions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
▪ Erme was the linchpin of the whole thing.
▪ Removing the middle would be like removing the linchpin.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Linchpin

Linchpin \Linch"pin`\ (l[i^]nch"p[i^]n`), n. [AS. lynis the axletree; akin to D. luns linchpin, OS. lunisa, LG. lunse, G. l["u]nse, OHG. lun peg, bolt.] A pin used to prevent the wheel of a vehicle from sliding off the axletree.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
linchpin

also linch-pin, late 14c., earlier linspin, from Middle English lins "axletree" (see linch) + pin (n.). The peg that holds a wheel on an axle; now mainly figurative.

Wiktionary
linchpin

alt. 1 a pin inserted through holes at the end of an axle, so as to secure a wheel 2 (context figuratively English) a central cohesive source of stability and security; a person or thing that is critical to a system or organisation. n. 1 a pin inserted through holes at the end of an axle, so as to secure a wheel 2 (context figuratively English) a central cohesive source of stability and security; a person or thing that is critical to a system or organisation.

WordNet
linchpin

  1. n. a central cohesive source of support and stability; "faith is his anchor"; "the keystone of campaign reform was the ban on soft money"; "he is the linchpin of this firm" [syn: anchor, mainstay, keystone, backbone, lynchpin]

  2. pin inserted through an axletree to hold a wheel on [syn: lynchpin]

Wikipedia
Linchpin

A linchpin, also spelled linch pin, lynchpin, or lynch pin, is a fastener used to prevent a wheel or other part from sliding off the axle upon which it is riding. The word is first attested in the late 14th century and derives from Middle English elements meaning "axletree pin".

Securing implements onto the three-point hitch of a tractor is an example of application. Linchpins may also be used in place of an R-clip for securing hitch pins.

The word "linchpin" is also used figuratively to mean "something [or someone] that holds the various elements of a complicated structure together."

Linchpin (song)

" Linchpin" is a single by American heavy metal band Fear Factory from their album Digimortal. It peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.

Usage examples of "linchpin".

Dixon-Lerche-Vafa-Warner guess, Plesser and I pressed on to the linchpin question: Beyond the number of families of particles, do the two different Calabi-Yau spaces agree on the rest of their physical properties?

The Pope used the head of Baphomet as the linchpin in his case against the Templars.

Stripped to his hose and swordbelt, he chipped shale, chopped wood, curried and harnessed the draft teams, or helped the wheelwright make linchpins and spokes, for wagons broke often on the rocky terrain.

One of the linchpins of the Great Defense, and of the ill-fated man-empire called "the Kings.

They were only marginally interest in honor, in giri-that certain form of obligation that remained today one of the linchpins of Yakuza society.

They were only marginally interest in honor, in giri—that certain form of obligation that remained today one of the linchpins of Yakuza society.

One of the linchpins from the wheels of the spare chaise is in there, too.

With an enormous variety of topography and scenery ranging from semitropical vacation planets with white sand beaches and rivieras of colorful flora (Ordu, Andron-icus, and Dragases), dense rain forests and vcee' plantations (Wogoria and Calleri'l), to rugged landscapes of the Voso Triad, gateways of the domain's celecoid quartz kernel growing areas, linchpins of Fluvannian economic life.

It seems that the latter's only saving grace is the settlement of Rabaul, a formerly British port complete with a cricket oval, now the linchpin of Nipponese forces in Southwest Asia.