chine

Meanings

Noun

• The top of a ridge.
• The spine of an animal.
• A piece of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.
• A sharp angle in the cross section of a hull.
• A hollowed or bevelled channel in the waterway of a ship's deck.
• The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.
• The back of the blade on a scythe.
• A steep-sided ravine leading from the top of a cliff down to the sea.

Verb

• To cut through the backbone of; to cut into chine pieces.
• To chamfer the ends of a stave and form the chine.
• To crack, split, fissure, break.

Origin

• From Middle English chyne, from Old French eschine, from Frankish *skinu, from Proto-Germanic *skinō. shin.
• From Middle English chyne, chynne, from Old English ċine, ċinu, from Proto-Germanic *kinō.
• From Middle English chynen, from Old English ċīnan, from Proto-West Germanic *kīnan, from Proto-Germanic *kīnaną ("to split; crack; germinate; sprout").