I. ˈchīn noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English chin, chine crack, fissure, chasm, from Old English cine, cinu; akin to Old English cīnan to gape, yawn, crack, Old High German kīnan, chīnan to sprout, split open, Swedish kina to sprout, Gothic keinan, Old High German kīmo, chīmo sprout, kīl, wedge, Old English cīth sprout, shoot, and perhaps to Armenian cił, ciuł, ceł stem, Latvian ziêt to bloom; basic meaning: to sprout, split apart
dialect England : a narrow and deep ravine or gorge
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English chyne, from Middle French eschine, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German scina needle, shinbone — more at shin
1.
a. archaic : the back or spine of an animal or man
b. : a piece of the backbone of an animal carcass with the adjoining parts cut for cooking : a saddle or a portion of it — see cow illustration
2. : ridge , crest
walking carefully along the chines of the rocks
3.
a. : the thick part of the waterway of a ship projecting above the deck and hollowed on the inboard edge to form a watercourse
b. : the intersection of the bottom and the sides of a flat or V-bottomed boat ; also : a longitudinal member lying along the bilge at this point
III. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1. : to cut through the backbone of:
a. : to split (as a carcass) through the length of the backbone
b. : to cut up (as a salmon or other fish)
2. : to break the back of
IV.
variant of chime