subs. (old).—A happy chance; a jolly time; a gay mood. IN A MERRY PIN = jovially inclined. [See quot. 1655.]

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  1560.  Nice Wanton [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ii. 166].

        I will set my heart
On a MERRY PIN,
Whatever shall befall.

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  1655.  FULLER, The Church History of Britain, iii. 17. The Dutch, and English in imitation of them, were wont to drink out of a cup marked with certain pins, and he accounted the man who could nick the pin; whereas, to go above or beneath it, was a forfeiture.

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  1670.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 174]. To be IN A MERRY-PIN.

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  1715.  PENNECUIK, Poems (1815), 332. Finding the brethren IN A MERRY PIN.

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  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, i. 274.

        Well, since you’re ON THE MERRY PIN,
And make so slight the counter-gin,
I’ll do’t.

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  d. 1774.  FERGUSSON, A Drink Eclogue (Poems, 1851, p. 114). And set the saul upon a MERRY PIN.

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