chine1
/tʃʌɪn
/noun
1The backbone of an animal as it appears in a joint of meat.You'll probably need to special order this roast from the butcher; be sure to ask for the chine bone to be removed....
- Souse, griskins, blade-bones, thigh-bones, spare-ribs, chines, belly-pieces, cheeks, all coming into use one after the other, and the last of the latter not before the end of about four or five weeks.
- Preliminary fat thickness was measured perpendicular to the longissimus from the chine bone, at a point three-fourths of the lateral length of the longissimus for each carcass.
1.1A joint of meat containing all or part of the chine.To buy a chine, stuffed and cooked, or uncooked and ready for you to stuff, apply to this company....
- If a chine of beef is a cut of meat containing part of the backbone, as above, then it is a very good cut for a roast, containing at least part of the short-loin, and possibly part of the tenderloin.
- In addition to bread the earl and countess received a quart of beer, a quart of wine, half a chine of mutton or a chine of boiled beef.
2A mountain ridge.
verb [with object]
Cut (meat) across or along the backbone: he learned how to chine a whole sheep...
- There was in 16c England a set of verbs for carving kinds of game, fish, and poultry, which included allaying a pheasant, barbing a lobster, chining a salmon, fracting a chicken, sculling a tench, and unbracing a mallard.
- Order a day or two ahead, and ask specifically for a six to eight-chop pork loin from the best end, chined, with the rib bones trimmed as for rack of lamb, and the rind vertically scored.
- Ask for an aged standing rib roast from the forequarter, trimmed and chined; bring to room temperature before roasting.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French eschine, based on a blend of Latin spina 'spine' and a Germanic word meaning 'narrow piece', related to shin.
Rhymes
chine2
/tʃʌɪn/noun
(In the Isle of Wight or Dorset) a deep narrow ravine.Many chines still exist in the South Wight and Hampshire....
- As the walls of the chines and cliffs of the south coast of the Isle of Wight are so unstable and erode continually, the strata is clearly visible, with 65 million years of geological history clear to see.
Origin
Old English cinu 'cleft, chink', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch keen, also to chink1.
chine3
/tʃʌɪn/noun
The angle where the strakes of the bottom of a boat or ship meet the side.The Bertram 31 and its prototype were designed with a remarkable 23-degree angle of deadrise at the transom with three lifting strakes on each side from the keel to the chine....
- Extrusions of 6061 or 6063 are used for structural and decorative sections, such as keels, chines, gunwales, and spray rails.
- This semi-displacement hull form is well suited to fishermen and lobstermen who must get their nets and pots onboard without hanging up on the hard chine of planing hulls.
Origin
Late Middle English: variant of chime2 (the original sense).