ninepins

[ nahyn-pinz ]

/ ˈnaɪnˌpɪnz /

(used with a singular verb) tenpins played without the head pin.

ninepin, a pin used in this game.

Origin of ninepins

1570–80; nine + pins

Treat men as pawns and ninepins and you shall suffer as well as they.

Essays, First Series |Ralph Waldo Emerson
They were being bowled over like ninepins, as the Germans must have seen them crossing the open.

The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10) |James Edward Parrott
The result was rather bad for the Turks; they went down like a lot of ninepins before Mole's railway-like progression.

Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks |Bracebridge Hemyng
Treat men as pawns and ninepins, and you shall suffer as well as they.

Discourses in America |Matthew Arnold

Archy, excited for the first time in his life, threw a box of ninepins at them, which exploded.

Ravenshoe |Henry Kingsley

ninepins

/ (ˈnaɪnˌpɪnz) /

(functioning as singular) another name for skittles See skittle (def. 2)

(singular) one of the pins used in this game