Hinge

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. t.) To attach by, or furnish with, hinges.

(2): ( v. t.) To bend.

(3): ( 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.

(4): ( 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.

(5): ( 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.

(6): ( n.) One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hinge. Both ancient Egyptian and modern Oriental doors were and are hung by means of pivots, turning in sockets, on both the upper and lower sides.  1 Kings 7:50. In Syria, and especially the Hauran, there are many ancient doors consisting of stone slabs with pivots, carved out of the same piece, inserted in sockets, above and below, and fixed during the building of the house. The allusion in  Proverbs 26:14 is thus clearly explained.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The only hinges handed down from antiquity are pivots projecting above and below the door, on which the door turned. In the temple the hinges were of gold, and may have been of this description.  1 Kings 7:50;  Proverbs 26:14 . In ancient existing houses with stone doors the hinges are stone projections at the top and bottom of the doors.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

In the Hauran the door was often a stone slab with a stone pivot above and below of the same piece, fitting into corresponding sockets. ( Proverbs 26:14). As the door moves round the same center, and cannot be separated from it, it moves indeed, but not forward; so the slothful man lies now on this side now on that, but will not be torn from his bed.

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 1 Kings 7:50 (c) The hinges tell of the motives which actuate the life of the Christian. The inner motives of the private life, and the outer motive of the public life are to be pure, rich, and valuable as gold is valuable and rich.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Proverbs 26:14  1 Kings 7:50

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Hinge . See House, § 6 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Proverbs 26:14

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hinj ( פת , pōth ): Hinges of Jewish sacred buildings in Scripture are mentioned only in connection with Solomon's temple. Here those for the doors, both of the oracle and of the outer temple, are said to have been of gold (  1 Kings 7:50 ). By this is probably to be understood that the pivots upon which the doors swung, and which turned in the sockets of the threshold and the lintel, were cased in gold. The proverb, "As the door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the sluggard upon his bed" ( Proverbs 26:14 ), describes the ancient mode of ingress and egress into important edifices. In the British Museum are many examples of stone sockets taken from Babylonian and Assyrian palaces and temples, engraved with the name and titles of the royal builder; while in the Hauran doors of a single slab of stone with stone pivots are still found in situ . Hinges, as we understand the word, were unknown in the ancient world. See House Ii , 1.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Hinge'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/h/hinge.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.