to put a pin in sth

[lukre]

What does it mean when somebody says to you -"put a pin in that".
A man was talking about something and a woman said to him -"I'm sorry, just put the pin in that" and she started talking about something else.

Does it mean shut up or you'll tell me later or...?

Thanx!

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by lukre

What does it mean when somebody says to you -"put a pin in that".
A man was talking about something and a woman said to him -"I'm sorry, just put the pin in that" and she started talking about something else.

Does it mean shut up or you'll tell me later or...?

Thanx!

The two idiomatic phrases I know are "Put a lid on it" or "Put a sock in it". Both have the meaning "shut up" or "Stop talking about that".

[Mordant]

Could be modern phraseology for 'pin that one on the board and we'll discuss it later'.

Not reached Northampton yet though!

[lukre]

Interesting!

[Casiopea]

Mordant's got it.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Mordant

Could be modern phraseology for 'pin that one on the board and we'll discuss it later'.

Not reached Northampton yet though!

Another version of this - perhaps particular to IT firms in the Thames Valley - is 'park that' (agree not to discuss something further in the present context, but deal with it later): [in an all-day meeting] 'That's an interesting question, but we'll park it for now and come back to it this afternoon.'

b

[Mordant]

Originally Posted by BobK

Another version of this - perhaps particular to IT firms in the Thames Valley - is 'park that' (agree not to discuss something further in the present context, but deal with it later): [in an all-day meeting] 'That's an interesting question, but we'll park it for now and come back to it this afternoon.'

b

And if it is not worthy of discussion do we 'clamp it'

[Casiopea]

And if it's worthy of discussion we table it.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

And if it's worthy of discussion we table it.

Aha - we have to be careful with 'table' (the verb). In British English, if something's tabled, it's up for discussion immediately; if it's on the agenda, it's tabled. To 'table a motion' (very strong collocation) is to make sure something's discussed at the earliest opportunity.

But in AmE (correct me if I'm wrong) if something's tabled it's what we in BE would call 'shelved' - reserved for discussion at a later date.

b