chine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the backbone of an animal, especially with the adjoining flesh, or a cut of meat or fish containing it

   The cook roasted a chine of pork slowly until the meat pulled away from the bone.

2. 2
   verb

   to remove or cut through the backbone of a carcass or cut of meat

   Ask the butcher to chine the rack so that it is easier to carve into chops.

3. 3
   noun

   in boatbuilding, a sharp longitudinal angle where the bottom and side of a hull meet

   The boat's hard chine improves stability but makes its motion through waves more abrupt.

4. 4
   noun

   chiefly southern British: a steep-sided ravine, especially one descending through a coastal cliff to the sea

   A narrow path follows the wooded chine down to the beach.

The backbone and meat senses came around 1300 from Anglo-French achine and Old French eschine ("backbone"), a word of uncertain, possibly Germanic origin. The nautical sense extends the image of a spine or ridge. The geographical ravine is a separate inherited word related to Old English cinu ("cleft, fissure").

Topics