tine

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /taɪn/

Noun

tine (plural tines)

1. A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb.
   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, Chapter 9, pp. 45-46,

     Sitting at the table one day, I held the fork in my left hand and pierced a piece of fried chicken. I put the knife through the second tine, as we had been strictly taught, and began to saw against the bone.

2. A small branch, especially on an antler or horn.
3. (dialect) A wild vetch or tare.

Translations

• French: dent, fourchon
• German: Zinke, Pickel, Dorn, Zacke, Zahn, Zinken, Stift, Zacken
• Italian: rebbio, dente, punta
• Portuguese: dente
• Russian: зубе́ц
• Spanish: diente, púa f on a pitchfork

Translations

• French: andouiller
• German: Ende, Sprosse, Sprießel
• Italian: ramificazione corna cervidi

Adjective

tine (comparative tiner, superlative tinest)

1. small, diminutive

Noun

tine

1. (obsolete) Trouble; distress; teen.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     As wither'd Weed through cruel Winter's Tine

Verb

tine (tines, present participle tining; past and past participle tined)

1. To kindle; to set on fire.
   • 1700, John Dryden, The First Book of Homer's Ilias:

     The priest with holy hands was seen to tine / The cloven wood, and pour the ruddy wine.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     Coals of contention and hot vengeance tin'd.

2. (obsolete) To rage; to smart.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     Ne was there salve, ne was there medicine, / That mote recure their wounds; so inly they did tine.

Verb

tine (tines, present participle tining; past and past participle tined)

1. To shut in, or enclose.

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