Definition of hinge

• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.
• v. t. - To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.
• v. t. - To bend.
• v. i. - 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.