pawns
Chess board's frontline
Pawns are chess pieces of the lowest value, each player starting with eight.
They move forward one square at a time but capture diagonally.
Because they're expendable and numerous, pawn extends to people used or sacrificed for others' purposes: The soldiers were pawns in a political game.
To pawn something is to leave it with a pawnbroker as security for a loan—a different word that converged on the same spelling.
To pawn off is to get rid of something unwanted by passing it to someone else.
Chess piece or corvid
- knightHonored mounted soldier
- bishopDiocesan clergy head
- queenMost powerful chess piece
- kingMale crowned ruler
squares · board · capture · file · rank · opening · endgame · gambit
Coarse livestock nourishment
- disposableMade for one use
- expendableAble to be sacrificed
- sacrificialGiven as offering
- cannon fodderTroops treated as disposable
frontline · throwaway · replaceable · dispensable · collateral damage · foot soldiers · grunts · casualties
Figures manipulated for performance
- toolsDevices for doing work
- instrumentsTools for precise tasks
- dupesDeceives or victims
- stoogesUnquestioning subordinates or assistants
proxies · catspaws · figureheads · minions · lackeys · henchmen · operatives · agents
Pawn's final-rank transformation
- transformationThorough change in form
- upgradeRaise to higher standard
- advancementForward movement or promotion
- endgameConcluding phase of competition
rook
Chess piece or corvid
king · squares · board · capture · file · rank · opening · endgame · gambit · checkmate
fodder
Coarse livestock nourishment
- disposableMade for one use
- expendableAble to be sacrificed
- sacrificialGiven as offering
cannon fodder · frontline · throwaway · replaceable · dispensable · collateral damage · foot soldiers · grunts · casualties · losses
puppets
Figures manipulated for performance
- toolsDevices for doing work
- instrumentsTools for precise tasks
- dupesDeceives or victims
stooges · proxies · catspaws · figureheads · minions · lackeys · henchmen · operatives · agents · middlemen
queening
Pawn's final-rank transformation
- transformationThorough change in form
- upgradeRaise to higher standard
- advancementForward movement or promotion
collateral
Security for debt
redeem · ticket · broker · security · valuables · jewelry · shop · lender · interest · forfeit
structure
Arrangement of interconnected parts
isolated · passed · connected · backward · hanging · majority · minority · break · push · storm
- chesscheck, knights, rooks, queens, king
- chess gearchess set, chess board, chess pieces, chessboard, chess clock
- expendable soldierscannon fodder, expendables, disposables, fresh meat, warm bodies
- game playrules, scoring, turns, winning, losing
- tabletop gamesboard games, board game, card games, card game, backgammon
- game mechanicslevels, rules, cooldown, points, health points
pawnspuppet masters
Controllers of others' actions
masterminds · kingmakers · power brokers · principals · manipulators
- pawn shopCollateral-based lending store
- pawned offTransferred unwanted responsibility
- pawn offDispose of deceptively
- pawning offTransferring unwanted responsibility
- pawn ticketProof of pawned item
- pawn off asDispose of deceptively
pawn, pawned, pawnshop, pawning, pawnbroker, pawnshops, pawnbrokers, pawnable, pawnbroking