chin
- 01 A1 Beginner
n.the part of your face that is below your mouth.
n.the protruding part of the face below the mouth, formed by the apex of the lower jaw.
Simple“He rubbed his chin while he thought about the difficult question.”
In context“The protagonist was described as having a strong, square chin that gave him an air of stubborn determination.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
n.the ability of a boxer or fighter to take a hard hit to the face without falling down.
n.the capacity of a combatant to withstand a blow to the jaw without being knocked unconscious. Uncountable in this sense.
Simple“The young fighter has a great chin and never seems to get hurt.”
In context“Despite his declining speed, the veteran heavyweight relied on his legendary chin to survive the early rounds of the championship bout.”
Synonyms - 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to pull your body up until your chin is over a bar for exercise.
v.to perform a chin-up by pulling oneself upward while hanging from a horizontal bar until the chin clears the bar.
Simple“He can chin himself twenty times in a row without stopping.”
In context“The recruits were required to chin themselves at least ten times as part of the initial physical fitness assessment.”
Synonyms - 04 C2 Proficiency
v.to punch someone hard, usually on the jaw.
v.to strike a person, specifically on the chin or jaw. Transitive use.
Simple“The argument got so heated that one man tried to chin the other.”
In context“He was lucky not to get chinned after making such an inflammatory comment in a crowded pub.”
- 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to show where something is by moving your chin toward it.
v.to indicate a direction or person by gesturing with the chin rather than the hands.
Simple“She didn't say a word, she just chinned toward the door to tell him to leave.”
In context“The witness chinned toward the back of the room, silently identifying the suspect without lifting a finger.”
From Middle English chyn, from Old English ċinn, from Proto-West Germanic \kinnu, from Proto-Germanic \kinnuz, from Proto-Indo-European \ǵénus* (“chin, jaw”).
Cognates include West Frisian kin, German Kinn, Tocharian A śanweṃ, and Armenian ծնոտ; the word is a doublet of Latin gena.
Shortening of chinchilla.
From the Wade–Giles romanization system, devised by Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles, representing the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 晉 / 晋 (Jìn).
From Mandarin 秦 (Qín), rendered Chʻin² in the romanisation system of Wade and Giles.
From Burmese ချင်း (hkyang:), the name of the people and their language. The term entered English via British colonial contact in the nineteenth century, when the Burmese kingdom and its ethnic designations became familiar to administrators, scholars, and eventually the wider lexicon. The Burmese word itself is of native origin, with no earlier attestation in other languages.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.