bins

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bin.

   The histogram sorts the test scores into ten equal bins.

   Hardware stores keep screws and nails in labeled bins along the wall.

   Note

   The plural is regular and covers every kind of bin: storage boxes in a hardware store, rubbish containers, the intervals of a histogram, even the fixed chunks a radar divides airspace into. The same spelling serves the verb form, as in she bins the junk mail, so a number, the or these in front is what marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bin.

   The program bins the temperature readings into hourly groups.

   The publisher bins most unsolicited manuscripts after a quick look.

   Note

   Present-tense verbs take this -s after he, she, it or a singular noun: the program bins each reading, the editor bins the letter. Register depends on which bin is meant. Throwing something away or rejecting it is British and informal; sorting continuous data into groups, or placing goods in a bin for storage, is neutral and at home in a lab report.

3. 3
   nounslangcountable

   A pair of glasses worn in front of the eyes to help a person see.

   He pushed his bins up his nose and squinted at the small print.

   She sat on her bins and snapped one of the arms clean off.

   Similarglasses, specs, spectacles

   Note

   The birders' clipping of binoculars also does duty for everyday spectacles. It is slang and belongs among friends; in neutral speech or writing, glasses or spectacles is the safe choice. What people do with them tells the two apart: spectacles get pushed up the nose or sat on, while the birdwatcher's bins are raised to scan a marsh.

4. 4
   nounslangcountable

   A pair of binoculars, especially the ones a birdwatcher carries in the field.

   Every birder on the marsh raised their bins when the heron landed.

   He saved for months to buy a better pair of bins before the spring migration.

   Similarbinoculars

   Note

   The word is binoculars cut short, and it has nothing to do with the container despite the identical spelling. Like binoculars it takes plural agreement: a pair of bins, my bins are fogging up. It is birdwatchers' slang, and Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book (1980) jokes that a birder's bins reveal nothing about their skill, only whether they're rich.

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