chinned

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of chin.

   She chinned the bar twelve times during the fitness test.

   The defendant had chinned a stranger outside the bar, witnesses said.

   Note

   One spelling does the work of both the past tense and the participle. She chinned the bar and she had chinned the bar take the same form, with have supplying the perfect. Context tells you which meaning is in play: a chin-up at the gym, the British sense of punching someone on the jaw, a violin raised to the chin, or dated slang for talking. Don't confuse it with the compound adjective in double-chinned.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having a chin of a particular kind, or a particular number of chins.

   The caricaturist drew the senator as a jowly, double-chinned figure.

   The portrait showed a broad-browed, strongly chinned admiral gazing out to sea.

   Note

   A word that almost never travels alone. It finishes compounds like double-chinned, weak-chinned and square-chinned, and it is hyphenated when the compound comes before a noun (a double-chinned woman). Because it marks having a chin rather than a degree of it, it does not take more or most itself. Any grading goes on the first element instead, as in a more square-chinned profile.

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