Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pivot

Piv′ot (pĭv′ŭt), n. [F.; prob. akin to It. piva pipe, F. pipe. See Pipe.] 1. A fixed pin or short axis, on the end of which a wheel or other body turns.

2. The end of a shaft or arbor which rests and turns in a support; as, the pivot of an arbor in a watch.

3. Hence, figuratively: A turning point or condition; that on which important results depend; as, the pivot of an enterprise.

4. (Mil.) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place whike the company or line moves around him in wheeling; — called also pivot man.

Pivot bridge, a form of drawbridge in which one span, called the pivot span, turns about a central vertical axis. — Pivot gun, a gun mounted on a pivot or revolving carriage, so as to turn in any direction. — Pivot tooth (Dentistry), an artificial crown attached to the root of a natural tooth by a pin or peg.

Piv′ot, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pivoted; p. pr. & vb. n. Pivoting.] To place on a pivot. Clarke.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.