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China vs Chine - What's the difference?

china | chine |

As a noun china

is (uncountable) the root of a climbing plant, smilax china l, once believed to have important medicinal properties or china can be (cockney rhyming slang|countable) mate (ie, friend).

As a verb chine is

.

china

English

(wikipedia China)

Proper noun

(en proper noun)
  • A country in East Asia, officially named the People's Republic of China ().
  • A region in East Asia comprising the areas governed by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
  • The civilization of the Chinese people.
  • (very rarely) A female given name.

    • Derived terms

    * China Hand * Chinaman * China syndrome * Chinese * sinophobia

    See also

    * * * * * Cathay * * all the tea in China * made in China

    Anagrams

    * (l) ----

    chine

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) chyne, from (etyl) eschine.

    Noun

    (wikipedia chine) (en noun)
  • The top of a ridge.
  • The spine of an animal.
  • * Dryden
    • And chine with rising bristles roughly spread.
  • * 1883:
  • A piece of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.
  • (nautical) a sharp angle in the cross section of a hull
  • The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.

    • Verb

    (chin)
  • To cut through the backbone of; to cut into chine pieces.
  • To chamfer the ends of a stave and form the chine.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) , from (etyl) cine, (cinu). The Old English term is cognate to Old Saxon kena, and is related to the Old English verb ("to split open, to sprout").

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Southern England) a steep-sided ravine leading from the top of a cliff down to the sea
  • * J. Ingelow
    • The cottage in a chine .
  • * 1988, , Penguin Books (1988), page 169
    • In the odorous stillness of the day I thought of the tracks that threaded Egdon Heath, and of benign, elderly Sandbourne, with its chines and sheltered beach-huts.

    Anagrams

    * ----