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# chine

«chine» in Mova's school dictionary: **The backbone of an animal, or a joint of meat that…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a chine, chines); verb (chine, chines, chined, chining — cooking)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The backbone of an animal, or a joint of meat that includes part of the backbone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#m1)

2) A narrow ridge of land or a mountain ridge. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#m2)

3) (UK, regional) A deep, narrow ravine cut by a stream through soft cliffs to the sea, especially on the Isle of Wight and in Dorset and Hampshire. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#m3)

4) (cooking, verb) To cut through the backbone of a joint of meat to make it easier to carve. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

It is a rare word. In geography it appears in names of places on the south coast of England like Blackgang Chine and Shanklin Chine. In cooking books a butcher may «chine» a rack of lamb. It tells the reader about a backbone or a steep narrow valley.

### examples

- We walked down Shanklin Chine to the beach on the Isle of Wight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x1)
- The butcher chined the pork so it was easy to carve. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x2)
- A chine is a steep ravine cut into a soft cliff. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x3)
- The stream had carved a deep chine through the sandstone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x4)
- The chef asked for a chine of beef. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x5)
- Bournemouth has several chines leading to the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/#x6)

### note

Countable: a chine, chines. Say «chyne» (rhymes with fine). Not connected with the country China. Rare in everyday speech outside cooking and southern English place names.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «chine» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/chine/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.