china
see also: China
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /tʃʌɪnə/
Noun

china

  1. (uncountable) Synonym of porcelain#English|porcelain, a hard white translucent ceramic made from kaolin, now (chiefly US) sometimes distinguished in reference to tableware as fine or good china.
    It's a china doll.
  2. (uncountable) Chinaware: porcelain tableware.
    • 1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, p. 41:
      They sell Callicoes, Cheney Sattin, Cheney ware.
    • 1653, Henry Cogan translating Fernão Mendes Pinto as The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, p. 206:
      ...a Present of certain very rich Pieces of China.
    He set the table with china, cloth napkins, and crystal stemware.
    The traditional 20th anniversary gift is china.
  3. (uncountable, chiefly US, dated) Cheaper and lower-quality ceramic and ceramic tableware, distinguished from porcelain.
    • 1921 May 11, "Edison Questions Stir Up a Storm", New York Times:
      What is porcelain? A fine earthenware differing from china in being harder, whiter, harder to fuse and more translucent than ordinary pottery.
  4. (uncountable) Synonym of China root#English|China root, the root of Smilax china (particularly) as a medicine.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v:
      China, saith Manardus, makes a good colour in the face, takes away melancholy, and all infirmities proceeding from cold […].
  5. (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of cheyney: worsted or woolen stuff.
    • 1790, Alexander Wilson, Poems, p. 55:
      ...And then the last boon I'll implore,
      Is to bless us with China so tight...
  6. (countable) Synonym of China rose#English|China rose, in its various senses.
    • 1844, Jane Loudon, The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden, 3rd ed., p. 344:
      Rosa indica (the common China); Rosa semperflorens (the monthly China).
  7. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, Australia, South Africa) Synonym of friend#English|friend.
    • 1880, Daniel William Barrett, Life and Work among the Navvies, 2nd ed., p. 41:
      ‘Now, then, my china-plate...’ This is essentially a brick~layer's phrase. If for ‘china-plate’ you substitute ‘mate’,... the puzzle is revealed.
    • 1925, Edward Fraser & al., Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases, p. 53:
      China, or Old China: chum.
    All right, me old china?
  8. (uncountable, dated) Tea from China, (particularly) varieties cured by smoking or opposed to Indian cultivars.
    • 1907, Yesterday's Shopping, p. 1:
      Tea... Finest China, Plain (Moning).
  9. (countable, games, chiefly US, obsolete) A glazed china marble.
    • 1932 March, Dan Beard, "New-Fashioned Kites and Old-Fashioned Marbles", Boys' Life, p. 27 ↗:
      The marbles, in those days, had their primitive names. The unglazed china ones were called plasters because they looked like plaster; the glazed china marbles were called chinas. I remember how charming were the partly colored lines which encircled them.
  10. (countable, music) A kind of drum cymbal approximating a Chinese style of cymbal, but usually with Turkish influences.
    • 2010, Carmine Appice, Drums for Everyone, p. 78 ↗:
      China cymbals are a type of short sound cymbal. [Brand X] makes chinas with really short sounds.
Translations
China
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) enPR: chī'nə, IPA: /ˈt͡ʃaɪnə/, [ˈt͡ʃ(ʰ)aɪ̯nə]
Proper noun
  1. A nation or civilization occupying the country around the Yellow, Yangtze, and Pearl Rivers in East Asia, taken as a whole under its various dynasties.
    Synonyms: Cathay, greater China, Han, Han Chinese civilization
    • 1555, Richard Eden translating Peter Martyr as The Decades of the Newe Worlde..., folio 230 verso:
      The great China, whose kyng is thought... the greatest prince in the worlde.
    • 1884, Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
      If he tells them to build a palace forty miles long, out of di'monds, and fill it full of chewing gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do it—and they've got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.
  2. The People's Republic of China, the principal state in this country.
    Synonyms: Celestial Kingdom, Flowery Kingdom, Middle Kingdom
    • 1971 December 6, "A Size-up of President Nixon: Interview with Mike Mansfield, Senate Democratic Leader", in US News & World Report, p. 61:
      'Only a Nixon' Could Go to China
    • 2017, Donald J. Trump, speech at Make America Great Again Rally, Harrisburg, PA
      And I met with the President of China at great length in Florida, and we had long, long talks—hours and hours and hours.
  3. Synonym of mainland China#English|mainland China
    from Macau to China
  4. (rare) A female given name.
    • 2001, Susan Wittig Albert, Bloodroot, Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN 9780425188149, chapter 1, gbooks IXUcKz8A_hEC:
      My name is China Bayles. I'm the owner of Thyme and Seasons and the co-owner, with Ruby Wilcox, of a new tearoom called Thyme for Tea.
    • 2014 Neil D. A. Stewart, The Glasgow Coma Scale, Constable & Robinson, ISBN 978-1-47211-268-2, page 159:
      'What's her name, this girl?' The fight had hoarsened Lynne's voice, and the words came out strangely staccato - a wooden doll that had just learned to speak.
      'China,' he mumbled, feeling an obscure desire to invent a pseudonym for her.
      'What an interesting name.'
      Angus struck the table edge hard. 'Aw, don't gies it.'
      'I don't know what you mean. Or is it a nickname? Fragile, is she?'
  5. An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Indiana.
  6. A town in Kennebec County, Maine.
  7. An unincorporated community in Howell County, Missouri.
  8. A hamlet in Delaware County, New York.
  9. A small city in Jefferson County, Texas.
  10. A municipality/and/town in Nuevo León, Mexico.
Synonyms Related terms Noun

china (plural chinas)

  1. (obsolete) A Chinese person.
  2. (obsolete) Alternative form of cheyney: woollen stuff; items made or filled with cheyney.
  3. (botany) Clipping of China rose#English|China rose: various flowers.
  4. (botany, beverages) Clipping of China tea.
  5. (rhyming slang) Alternative form of china: a mate, a friend.



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