pawn
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
a person used to further someone's purposes
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một người được sử dụng để phục vụ mục đích của ai đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a chess piece
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She was just a pawn in his game of corporate politics
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pawn” mean?
a person used to further someone's purposes Literally: a chess piece
Is “pawn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.