gin
/d͡ʒɪn/ noun, verb, conjunction
Forms gins ginning ginned gan gun Jing
- noun A colourless non-aged alcoholic liquor made by distilling fermented grains such as barley, corn, oats or rye with juniper berries; the base for many cocktails.
- noun (uncountable) Gin rummy.
- noun (poker) Drawing the best card or combination of cards. “Johnny Chan held jack-nine, and hit gin when a queen-ten-eight board was dealt out.”
- noun (obsolete) A trick; a device or instrument.
- noun (obsolete) A scheme; contrivance; artifice; a figurative trap or snare.
- noun A snare or trap for game.
- noun A machine for raising or moving heavy objects, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys, ropes, etc.
- noun (mining) A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.
- noun A pile driver.
- noun A windpump.
- noun A cotton gin.
- verb (transitive) To remove the seeds from cotton with a cotton gin.
- verb (transitive) To trap something in a gin.
- verb (archaic, Early Modern) To begin.
- noun (Australia, now considered offensive, ethnic slur) An Aboriginal woman.
- conjunction (chiefly Scotland, Northern England, Southern US, Appalachia) If.
- noun An ethnic Vietnamese, in reference to those whose lands are in China.
Synonyms
lubra Jing Kinh snare noose cotton gin gin rummy knock rummy
Etymology
Abbreviation of geneva, alteration of Dutch genever (“juniper”) from Old French genevre (modern French genièvre), from Vulgar Latin ziniperus, from Latin iūniperus (“juniper”). Hence gin rummy (first attested 1941).
Partly from Middle English gin, ginne (“cleverness, scheme, talent, device, machine”), from Old French gin, an aphetism of Old French engin (“engine”); and partly from Middle English grin, grine (“snare, trick, stratagem, deceit, temptation, noose, halter, instrument”), from Old English grin, gryn, giren (“snare, gin, noose”).
Inherited from Middle English ginnen (“to begin”), contraction of beginnen.
Borrowed from Dharug dyin (“woman”), but having acquired a derogatory tone.
Webster’s 1913
- preposition Against; near by; towards; as, gin night. [Scot.] A. Ross (1778).
- conjunction If. [Scotch] Jamieson.
- verb To begin; --often followed by an infinitive without to; as, gan tell. See Gan. [Obs. or Archaic] "He gan to pray." Chaucer.
- noun A strong alcoholic liquor, distilled from rye and barley, and flavored with juniper berries; --also called Hollands and Holland gin, because originally, and still very extensively, manufactured in Holland. Common gin is usually flavored with turpentine.
Etymology [AS. geán. See Again.]
Etymology [See Gin, prep.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gin”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details