joins

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of join.

   The new employee joins the team at the start of next week.

   A welder joins the metal plates along the curved seam.

   Note

   The -s form, used after he, she, it or a singular noun, leans toward the verb's transitive uses. Coming together usually takes two parties and so a plural subject, which leaves a single subject mostly joining something: she joins the club, a welder joins two plates, a query joins two tables. The same spelling as the plural noun is resolved by what follows it.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of join.

   The tailor pressed the joins flat so the seams would lie neatly.

   Inspectors checked every one of the welded joins for weakness.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. As a plural noun it sits beside the present-tense verb form, and only position tells them apart: compare "the joins hold" with "the pipe joins the tank." The plural counts meeting points in piping or wiring, intersections of data across database tables, or, in lattice theory, separate instances of the lowest-upper-bound operation written ∨.

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