chin

Pluralchins

Formschins, chinning, chinned

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The lower part of the face below the mouth, formed by the front of the jaw.

   A drop of soup clung to his chin.

   She tilted her chin upward in defiance.

   Note

   The body part nearly every other use of the word borrows from: Old English ċinn, traced back to an Indo-European root that meant both "chin" and "jaw". That old overlap survives in English, where boxers speak of a glass chin and a glass jaw alike. Its learned equivalent is mentum, while in everyday speech chin covers the whole jutting point of the face below the mouth.

2. 2
   verbintransitivereflexive

   To lift one's own body weight while hanging from a bar, raising the chin above it.

   Few recruits can chin more than a dozen times.

   He chins steadily until his arms give out.

   Note

   The gym verb comes in two shapes, reflexive and bare. Upton Sinclair's The Fasting Cure (1913) has a man "chin" himself six times in succession, and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) has men chinning themselves for years. E. E. Cummings uses the bare form, a bar used only for chinning. Either way it counts repetitions, and the motion is strict: you cannot swing your body when chinning.

3. 3
   verbUKtransitive

   To punch or strike someone, especially on the chin.

   He chinned the other guy outside the pub.

   She warned that she would chin anyone who touched her bike.

   Similarpunch, hit, slug, deck, thump

   Note

   The punch is named for where it lands, but the verb takes the person as its object, not the jaw: you chin someone. It is chiefly British. Nell Dunn's Up the Junction (1966) has "I hit a policeman—chinned him," and Ralph Henry Barbour pairs it with "jabbed him in the nose" in 1915. Its natural counterpart is a fighter's chin, the ability to take exactly this blow.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The capacity to absorb a punch to the chin without being knocked out.

   Even tired, he showed a remarkable chin in the final round.

   Her chin had never failed her in fifteen professional bouts.

   Note

   Boxing treats this as a quality rather than a body part: a fighter has a chin, or shows one, and nobody counts chins. The opposite is a glass chin or glass jaw, the weakness of a fighter who goes down from one clean shot. Praise usually comes with an adjective, a good or remarkable chin, and the word travels easily into the martial arts.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The strip of a phone's body below the screen, along the bottom edge.

   The new flagship trims the chin to almost nothing.

   A wider chin makes the front camera easier to hide.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The lower part of an aircraft's front section, below the nose.

   A sensor turret was fitted into the chin of the gunship.

   The chin of the airliner took most of the bird strike.

   Note

   An aviation word that keeps the face metaphor going: below the nose comes the chin. On military aircraft it is prime space for sensors. Army magazine in 1990 described an infrared turret set into an MH-47E's chin, and Aviation Week & Space Technology in 2001 placed Lockheed Martin's system behind a low-observable window blended into it.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To gesture toward someone or something with a movement of the chin.

   She chinned the parked van to warn him quietly.

   He would chin the exit whenever he wanted to leave a party.

   Similarindicate

   Note

   No preposition is needed. Han Ong's The Disinherited (2004) has Madame Sonia simply chin "the American," where ordinary speech would say she nodded toward him. The person or thing indicated is the direct object, and the gesture does the work of naming him aloud.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To raise and hold a musical instrument against one's chin.

   The soloist chinned her viola and waited for the cue.

   Beginners learn to chin the instrument before drawing the bow.

   Note

   The object is the instrument, and it need not be a fiddle. Alfred Billings Street's "General Training" (1849) has Joe Lippett "chinning his fife," while Gene Fowler's Schnozzola (1951) has a scientist who "tuned, then chinned the violin." The verb catches the moment of settling the instrument just before playing begins.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To place or rest one's chin on something.

   The dog chinned my knee and begged for scraps.

   Tired children often chin the table during long meals.

   Note

   The object is whatever takes the chin's weight. Ian Wallace's The Sign of the Mute Medusa (1977) has a woman who "elbowed the table and chinned her hand," and Garry Disher's Crosskill (1994) has a man chin an alley fence to look along it. Keep it apart from pointing with the chin, where the object is the target of a gesture, not a resting place.

10. 10
    nounslangBritishcountable

    A lie or deliberate falsehood.

    The whole excuse was an obvious chin.

    She spotted the chin the moment he opened his mouth.

    Similarlie, fib, falsehood

    Oppositetruth

    Note

    Britain uses the noun for an untruth: an excuse that does not hold up, a story told to wriggle out of trouble. It is slang, so keep it for casual talk among people who know it. In anything written or formal, lie is the safe word, and an American listener may hear the word for talk instead.

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