chine
part of speech
noun (a chine, chines); verb (chine, chines, chined, chining — cooking)
meaning for a pupil
1) The backbone of an animal, or a joint of meat that includes part of the backbone. tree →
2) A narrow ridge of land or a mountain ridge. tree →
3) (UK, regional) A deep, narrow ravine cut by a stream through soft cliffs to the sea, especially on the Isle of Wight and in Dorset and Hampshire. tree →
4) (cooking, verb) To cut through the backbone of a joint of meat to make it easier to carve. tree →
sense in the lessons
It is a rare word. In geography it appears in names of places on the south coast of England like Blackgang Chine and Shanklin Chine. In cooking books a butcher may «chine» a rack of lamb. It tells the reader about a backbone or a steep narrow valley.
examples
- We walked down Shanklin Chine to the beach on the Isle of Wight. tree →
- The butcher chined the pork so it was easy to carve. tree →
- A chine is a steep ravine cut into a soft cliff. tree →
- The stream had carved a deep chine through the sandstone. tree →
- The chef asked for a chine of beef. tree →
- Bournemouth has several chines leading to the sea. tree →
note
Countable: a chine, chines. Say «chyne» (rhymes with fine). Not connected with the country China. Rare in everyday speech outside cooking and southern English place names.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «chine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.