chine
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L307185 on Wikidata ↗noun
- steep-sided river valley
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /t͡ʃaɪn/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English chyne, chynne (“crack, fissure, chasm”), from Old English ċine, ċinu, from Proto-West Germanic *kinu, from Proto-Germanic *kinō.
- A steep-sided ravine leading from the top of a cliff down to the sea.
“The cottage in a chine, we were not to behold it.”
“In the odorous stillness of the day I thought of the tracks that threaded Egdon Heath, and of benign, elderly Sandbourne, with its chines and sheltered beach-huts.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English chynen (“to crack, fissure, split”), from Old English ċīnan (“to break into pieces, burst, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *kīnan, from Proto-Germanic *kīnaną (“to split; crack; germinate; sprout”).
- To crack, split, fissure, break.
“The wayward son did chine his father's heart.”
“A drought had caused the earth to chine and cranny.”