rein
noun
- item of horse tack, used to direct a horse or other animal used for riding or driving
verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L18351 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɹeɪn/
name
Etymology: * As a German surname, borrowed from German Rein, comparable to the first element of several surnames such as Reinhardt, Reinbold, etc., from Proto-Germanic *raginą. * As an English surname, variant of Rain. Possibly also a habitational surname related to Rhine.
- A surname from German.
noun
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman reines, Middle French reins, and their source, Latin rēnēs. Doublet of ren.
- A kidney.
“a man subject to these like imaginations[…]hath often the stone imaginarily, before he have it in his reines[…].”
“He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.”
- The inward impulses; the affections and passions, formerly supposed to be located in the area of the kidneys.
“My reins rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.”
“I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English rein, reyne, from Anglo-Norman reyne, resne, from Early Medieval Latin retina, ultimately from Classical Latin retineō (“hold back”), from re- + teneō (“keep, hold”). Compare modern French rêne. Displaced native Old English brīdel (“bridle, rein”), Old English wealdleþer, ġewealdleþer (“rein, bridle”, literally “control strap”), Old English sāl (“cord, rein”), Old English tiġel (“rein”), and Old English lāttēh, lāttēh (“leash, rein”).
- To direct or stop a horse by using reins.
“He mounts and reins his horse.”
- To restrain; to control; to check.
“Being once chafed, he cannot / Be reined again to temperance.”
“After an interval that he judged to have lasted twenty minutes, the bed began to shake with poorly reined sobs.”
- To obey directions given with the reins.
“She worked each horse at a walk, trot, and then a canter. The horses reined well and executed stops quickly.”