“shins” is a form of
shin
/ʃɪn/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms shins shinning shinned sheen
- noun The front part of the leg below the knee; the front edge of the shin bone: Shinbone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia “Soccer players have to wear protective gear so they don't injure their shins.”
- noun A fishplate for a railway
- verb To climb up or lower oneself down a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like. “to shin up a mast”
- verb To strike with the shin.
- verb (US, slang) To run about borrowing money hastily and temporarily, as when trying to make a payment.
- noun The twenty-first letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others): Shin (letter) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- proper noun A river in Scotland, in the Highlands
- proper noun A surname from Korean.
Synonyms
tibia shinny shin bone shinbone clamber scramble skin struggle sputter
Etymology
From Middle English schyne, from Old English scinu, from Proto-West Germanic *skinu, from Proto-Germanic *skinō. Cognate with West Frisian skine, Dutch scheen, German Schiene. Not related to skin.
From Scottish Gaelic abhainn Sin.
Borrowed from Korean 신 (sin), derived from 申, 辛, or 愼.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The front part of the leg below the knee; the front edge of the shin bone; the lower part of the leg; the shank. "On his shin." Chaucer.
- noun A fish plate for rails. Knight. Shin bone (Anat.), the tibia.
- verb To climb a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like; --used with up; as, to shin up a mast. [Slang]
- verb To run about borrowing money hastily and temporarily, as for the payment of one's notes at the bank. [Slang, U.S.] Bartlett.
Etymology [OE. shine, schine, AS. scina; akin to D. scheen, OHG. scina, G. schiene, schienbein, Dan. skinnebeen, Sw. skenben. Cf. Chine.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “shin”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details