chin

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See also: Chin, chín, chỉn, and -chin

English[edit]

Composer Ambrose Thomas with hand on chin (1).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: chĭn, IPA(key): /tʃɪn/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪn

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English chyn, from Old English cin or ċinn (“chin”), from Proto-Germanic *kinnuz (“chin”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénus (“chin, jaw”). Compare West Frisian/Dutch kin, Low German/German Kinn, Danish kind, Icelandic kinn, Welsh gen, Latin gena, Tocharian A śanwem, Ancient Greek γένυς (génus, “jaw”), Armenian ծնոտ (cnot), Persian چانه‎ (čâne), Sanskrit हनु (hánu).

Noun[edit]

chin (plural chins)

  1. The bottom of a face, (specifically) the typically jutting jawline below the mouth.
  2. (slang, US) Talk.
  3. (slang, Britain) A lie, a falsehood.
  4. (boxing, uncountable) The ability to withstand being punched in the chin without being knocked out.
Synonyms[edit]
  • (central area of the jaw, below the mouth): mentum (anatomy)
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from chin
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

chin (third-person singular simple present chins, present participle chinning, simple past and past participle chinned)

  1. (slang, dated, intransitive) To talk.
    • 1912, Jack London, Smoke Bellew, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 5, p. 141,[2]
      “I reckon you can explain, Mrs. Peabody.” […] “An’ I reckon that newcomer you’ve been chinning with could explain if he had a mind to.”
    • 1944, Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 1, p. 3,[3]
      This little chore involved getting up at 3 A.M., working about two hours, then sitting around chinning and drinking coffee with the radio operators until too late to go back to sleep.
  2. (slang, dated, transitive) To talk to or with (someone).
    • 1911, Henry Sydnor Harrison, Queed, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 7, p. 85,[4]
      “Been up chinning your sporting editor, Ragsy Hurd. […] ”
    • 1912, Nancy Mann Waddel Woodrow, The Black Pearl, New York: Appleton, Chapter 12, p. 239,[5]
      “What do you suppose that Seagreave’s chinning Hughie about[?]”
  3. (reflexive, intransitive) To perform a chin-up (exercise in which one lifts one's own weight while hanging from a bar).
    • 1913, Upton Sinclair, The Fasting Cure, New York: Mitchell Kennerley, p. 34,[6]
      It is worth noting that on the eighth day he was strong enough to “chin” himself six times in succession, though previous to the fasting treatment he had never in his life been able to do this more than once or twice.
    • 1922, E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, New York: Modern Library, 1949, Chapter 4, p. 80,[7]
      A description of the cour would be incomplete without an enumeration of the manifold duties of the planton in charge, which were as follows: to prevent the men from using the horizontal bar, except for chinning, since if you swung yourself upon it you could look over the wall into the women’s cour […]
    • 1969, Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, New York: Dial, 2005, Chapter 5, p. 119,[8]
      The Englishmen had also been lifting weights and chinning themselves for years. Their bellies were like washboards. The muscles of their calves and upper arms were like cannonballs.
    • 1986, Martin Cohen, The Marine Corps 3X Fitness Program, Boston: Little, Brown, Part 3, p. 75,[9]
      You can grunt and curse to your heart’s content but you cannot swing your body when chinning.
  4. (chiefly Britain, transitive) To punch or hit (someone)'s chin (part of the body).
    • 1915, Ralph Henry Barbour, Left Tackle Thayer, New York: Dodd, Mead, Chapter 14, pp. 183-184,[10]
      He told me once that he used to be scared to death every time he started in a hard game for fear he’d get badly injured. Said it wasn’t until someone had jabbed him in the nose or ‘chinned’ him that he forgot to be scared.
    • 1966, Nell Dunn “OUT with the Boys” in Up the Junction, Philadelphia: Lippincott, p. 88,[11]
      ‘I’m in trouble, I hit a policeman—chinned him. He was messin’ me about, pushin’ me around on the pavement, so I chinned him, didn’t I? […] ’
  5. (transitive) To put or hold (a musical instrument) up to one's chin.
  6. (transitive) To turn on or operate (a device) using one's chin; to select (a particular setting) using one's chin.
    • 1958, Robert Heinlein, Have Space Suit—Will Travel, New York: Del Rey, Chapter 8, p. 160,[15]
      I was too tired to argue; I chinned the valve three or four times, felt a blast blistering my face.
    • 1985, Joe Haldeman, “You Can Never Go Back” in Dealing in Futures, New York: Viking, p. 154,[16]
      I landed kind of sloppily on hands and knees and chinned the squad frequency. “First squad sound off!”
  7. (transitive) To put one's chin on (something).
    • 1977, Ian Wallace, The Sign of the Mute Medusa, New York: Popular Library, Chapter 26, p. 243,[17]
      […] she elbowed the table and chinned her hand.
    • 1994, Garry Disher, Crosskill, St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, Chapter 7, p. 35,[18]
      He chinned the alley fence and looked both ways along it.
  8. (transitive) To indicate or point toward (someone or something) with one's chin.
    • 2004, Han Ong, The Disinherited, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Part 4, Chapter 4, p. 239,[19]
      But you don’t love him, said Madame Sonia with understanding. Do you love this one? Madame Sonia chinned the American.
Synonyms[edit]
  • (talk (slang)): gab
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Shortening of chinchilla.

Noun[edit]

chin (plural chins)

  1. (affectionate) a chinchilla.

Anagrams[edit]

Aromanian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin pīnus. Compare Daco-Romanian pin.

Noun[edit]

chin

  1. pine

See also[edit]

Franco-Provençal[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin canem, accusative singular of canis.

Noun[edit]

chin m (plural chins)

  1. dog

Japanese[edit]

Romanization[edit]

chin

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ちん
  2. Rōmaji transcription of チン

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

chin

  1. Alternative form of chyn

Navajo[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

chin

  1. grime, filth, body dirt

Synonyms[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Hungarian kín.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

chin n (plural chinuri)

  1. torture, pain

Declension[edit]

declension of chin
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) chin chinul (niște) chinuri chinurile
genitive/dative (unui) chin chinului (unor) chinuri chinurilor
vocative chinule chinurilor

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române (DEX) Online : [1]

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /t͡ʃin/, [t͡ʃĩn]

Noun[edit]

chin m (plural chines)

  1. (regional, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) small amount
    Dame un chin de café.
    Give me a little coffee.

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

  • Orlando Alba, Cómo hablamos los dominicanos, Santo Domingo, Amigo del Hogar, 2003. (full text)
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