Also 4–7 chyne, (7 chein, chaine). [Aphetic f. *achine, for OF. eschine (mod.F. échine) spinal column, back-bone (11th c. in Littré), corresp. to Pr. esquina, esquena, Sp. esquena, It. schiena.
For the Romance word Diez suggests an adoption of OHG. scina, MHG. schine, which, among other things, meant ‘needle, splinter,’ perh. originally ‘small piece of bone or metal.’ The transition of sense would be parallel to that of L. spina, prickle, fishbone, backbone, and Ger. grat; the difficulty being the want of evidence, either in German or Romanic, for this transition. (Scheler Anhang, to Diez quotes from an It.-Ger. Gloss. in Mussafia ‘schena, schinpein’ shinbone, which may be thought to show some approximation.)]
1. The spine, backbone, or vertebral column; more loosely ‘the part of the back in which the spine is found’ (J.). arch. and techn.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 3977. Thow … Me byhynde at my chyne Smotest me with thy spere.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 468. Take a pike or a tenche, and slitte hom by the chine.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 495. The emperoure was so brused wyth hys fal, that nye the chyne of his backe was broken asonder.
1570. Levins, Manip., 139. The chine of a beast, spina.
1607. Dekker, Wh. Babylon, Wks. 1873, II. 219. My backe must beare Till the chine crack.
1705. Otway, Orphan, II. iii. 516. I … clove the Rebel to the Chine.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, I. iv. (1738), 35. It is continued along the Chine downwards … and through all that passage is term’d the Spinal Marrow.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., II. 263. Sheep … The chine should be low and straight from the shoulders to the setting on of the tail.
1879. Browning, Ned Bratts, 206. Perjury cracks my chine.
† 2. The back. Obs.
c. 1475. Partenay, 5647. Well felt the strokes on the chinesse bred.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. iii. 3. Whom Calidore thus carried on his chine.
1611. Cotgr., Eschinon … The chyne, or vpper part of the backe betweene the shoulders.
1775. Songs Costume (1849), 255. Then the fops are so fine, With lank-waisted chine, And a skimp bit of a hat.
† b. To bow the chine. Obs.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. vi. And do theym bowen both in backe and chyne. Ibid., Bochas, II. xxxi. (1554), 67 a. To that Lord bowe a down thy chine.
1443. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 211. Tofore whos face lowly they did enclyne,… Ffyl doun to ground, bowyd bak and chyne.
3. Cookery. A ‘joint’ consisting of the whole or part of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining flesh. The application varies much according to the animal; in mutton it is the ‘saddle’; in beef any part of the back (ribs or sirloin).
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1354. Syþen sunder þay þe sydez swyft fro þe chyne [of a deer].
1556. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 260. Item, payed for a chyne of freshe salmon.
1592. Nobody & Someb. (1878), 289. Yeomen … Whose long backs bend with weightie chynes of biefe.
a. 1764. in Dodsley, Coll. Poems, VI. 257. Chickens and a chine of lamb.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ii. 7. In a sheep … the two loins together is called a chine or saddle of mutton.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneers, ix. A prodigious chine of roasted bear’s meat.
b. spec. The backbone and immediately adjoining flesh of a bacon-pig, which remains when the sides are cut off for bacon-curing.
[1502. Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 64. Podynges and chynes of porke.]
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 269, ¶ 8. He had killed eight fat Hogs… he had dealt about his Chines very liberally amongst his Neighbours.
1788. Ld. Auckland’s Corr., II. 208. As the person said about his friend from the country sending him a chine, that he wished he had sent the turkey too.
1861. Sat. Rev., 21 Dec., 647. When country cousins were not too fine to send up turkeys and chine.
4. transf. A ridge, crest, arête.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 166. And the billow now Upon its chine the ironed wheels supports.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, III. 99. Crawling on hands and knees along the sharp chines of the rocks.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxix. (ed. 12), 170. Every man in his several place, keeping down the rig or chine.
1876. R. Burton, Gorilla L., II. 257. We then struck the roughest of descents, down broken outcrops and chines of granite.
† 5. Mourning of the chine, mourne of the chine, mose in the chine, glanders of the chine: a disease of horses: see MOURNE, -ING, GLANDERS. Hence, perhaps, chine, as name of a disease.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 87. Mournynge on the chyne … appereth at his nosethryll lyke oke water.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 55. Well, this Louer … began … to mourne of the chine, and to hang the lip.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 51. His horse … possest with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 77. The iuice of black Chamæleon killeth young kie like the chine.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 746. The wheasing Swine With Coughs is choak’d, and labours from the Chine.
6. Comb. a. as † chine-beef; † chine-bone, the vertebral column; chine-marrow, spinal marrow.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 37. He took … Of good *chine-beef, and gave it to these guests.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 903. The *chyne boone, la greue.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 42. If the chinebone were all of one piece, a man shoulde bee alwayes stiffe like to a pale.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. The *chine or pithmarrow.
b. cf. sense 5: chine-evil, -gall, -glanders.
1630. Massinger, Picture, IV. ii. The friction with fumigation, cannot save him From the chine-evil.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., I. 90/1. The Chinegall, the Nauelgall … the Glanders.
1746. Langrish, Phys. Exper. on Brutes, 104. What the Farriers call the chine-glanders.
