Obs. exc. dial. [app. from same root as CHINE; cf. esp. the 16th c. chynne.]
1. Mining. A leading of clay or other soft soil setting between two hard sides and sinking down.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., E iij b. There is more to be said of these Chuns, but it will fall in more Pat, when we come to Founder.
b. (See quot.)
1886. Cheshire Gloss. (E. D. S.), Chun, a crack in the finger or hand, from frost, or from dryness of the skin.
2. Sc. ‘The sprouts or germs of barley, in the process of making malt; also, the shoots of potatoes beginning to spring in the heap. Gall., Dumfr.’ (Jamieson). Hence Chun v.
‘To chun potatoes, is, in turning them to prevent vegetation, to nip off the shoots which break out from what are called the een, or eyes’ (Jam.).
