Piv"ot (?), 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.
© Webster 1913.
Piv"ot, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pivoted; p. pr. & vb. n. Pivoting.]
To place on a pivot.
Clarke.
© Webster 1913.