shins

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shin.

   She scraped both shins climbing over the rocky wall.

   Soccer players wear pads to protect their shins from hard tackles.

   Note

   The everyday plural is the anatomical one, as in scraped shins or pads to protect the shins. The same form can also count railway fishplates or several instances of the Semitic letter shin, so context decides which is meant. The spelling is shared with the verb's present-tense form. After a number or determiner, "shins" is the noun, while in "he shins up" it is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of shin.

   He shins up the flagpole every morning to raise the colors.

   Whenever the cat gets stuck, she shins up the trunk after it.

   Note

   A verb of motion that nearly always travels with up or down: she shins up the trunk, he shins down a rope. The climber grips with arms and legs rather than using steps or footholds. The same form carries two rarer meanings. One is striking with the shin. The other, US slang, is scrambling to borrow money for a payment due, and it belongs in casual speech.

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