Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A metal spike fitted at one end with an eye for securing a rope and driven into rock or ice as a support in mountain climbing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A point; a peak.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mountain Climbing) A metal spike having a sharpened point on one end, and a hole through which a rope can be passed on the other; it is driven into the face of a rock cliff during climbing, and used as an anchor point for a rope.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a spike, wedge, or peg that is driven into a rock or ice surface as a support (as for a mountain climber)
  • verb climbing to put pitons into a rock/ice to facilitate climbing

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a metal spike with a hole for a rope; mountaineers drive it into ice or rock to use as a hold

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, nail.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French piton ("nail")

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Examples

  • Trailing behind the piton was a microthin line of duranium cable.

    A Time to Kill David Mack 2004

  • Trailing behind the piton was a microthin line of duranium cable.

    A Time to Kill David Mack 2004

  • Trailing behind the piton was a microthin line of duranium cable.

    A Time to Kill David Mack 2004

  • Grias neuberthii, known as the piton tree, is a large tree native to the western Amazonian rainforest (Ecuador, Columbia and Peru).

    Museum Blogs 2009

  • Soon after the school opened, I signed up and learned how to belay and rappel, and about the play of rock climbing on the senses: the clink of the hammer on a piton, the warmth of the sunlit granite under my hand, the radiant clouds sailing overhead.

    Yosemite's Rock Stars 2009

  • Soon after the school opened, I signed up and learned how to belay and rappel, and about the play of rock climbing on the senses: the clink of the hammer on a piton, the warmth of the sunlit granite under my hand, the radiant clouds sailing overhead.

    Yosemite's Rock Stars 2009

  • Soon after the school opened, I signed up and learned how to belay and rappel, and about the play of rock climbing on the senses: the clink of the hammer on a piton, the warmth of the sunlit granite under my hand, the radiant clouds sailing overhead.

    Yosemite's Rock Stars 2009

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  • Créez votre badge welcome beggining on blog, feel free to give comments about me lilasvb piton saint leu, reunion, Reunion je suis chorégraphe, auteure, dessinatrice amateure, en transition d'une ile à l'autre, j'expérimente l'asthanga yoga comme base matinale pour passer de meilleures journées....

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