gin

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.

Conjunction

  1. If.
    • […]for pronouncing according as one would ſay at London I would eat more cheeſe if I had it, the Northern man ſaith, Ay ſuld eat mare cheeſe gin ay hadet, and the Weſterne man ſaith Chud eat more cheeſe an chad it. -...
    • Gin the plough rests on the bank, / The loom, the nation, dies. - 1804, Robert Couper, Poetry, I. 196:
    • An' gin I'm weel and can keep sober / You may look for it in October. - 1809, Thomas Donaldson, Poems, section 76:

Origin

Cognate to Scots gin (“if”): perhaps from gi(v)en, or a compound in which the first element is from Old English ġif (English if) and the second is cognate to English an (“if”) (compare iffen), or perhaps from again.

Noun obsolete

  1. A trick; a device or instrument.
  2. A scheme; contrivance; artifice; a figurative trap or snare.
    • The church dores were sparred, Fast boltyd and barryd, Yet wyth a prety gyn I fortuned to come in, […] - c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete...
    • treason and deceiptfull gin - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  3. A snare or trap for game.
    • It was the cry of a rabbit caught in a gin. - 1895, Thomas Hardy, “IV-ii”, in Jude the Obscure, London: Osgood:
  4. 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.
  5. A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.
  6. A pile driver.
  7. A windpump.
  8. A cotton gin.
  9. An instrument of torture worked with screws.

Origin

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”).

Forms

gins

Derived

ginner ginnery gin block gin pole ginwright pitfall and gin roller gin saw gin whip gin

Noun Entry 3

  1. 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.
  2. Gin rummy.
  3. 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.

Origin

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).

Forms

gins

Related

genever juniper

Derived

bathtub gin Dutch gin gin and French Gin and Gospel Gazette gin and Italian gin and it gin-and-It gin and tonic gin tonic gin berry gin blossom gin bottle gin bucket gin-clear gin fizz ginhouse gin joint ginless ginlike gin mill ginny gin palace gin pennant ginshop

Noun Australia, ethnic

  1. An Aboriginal woman.
    • His next shot was discharged amongst the mob, and most unfortunately wounded the gin already mentioned ; who, with a child fastened to her back, slid down the bank, and lay, apparently dying, with her legs in the water....
    • On December 28, in the same year [1828], he [John Allen] fought single handed a tribe of native blacks, numbering from thirteen to eighteen, besides "gins" to bring them spears, waddies, etc. - 1879 December 31,...
    • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XXI, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt From...

Origin

Borrowed from Dharug dyin (“woman”), but having acquired a derogatory tone.

Forms

gins

Synonyms

lubra

Related

blackgin

Derived

blackgin gin burglar gin burglary gin hunter gin jockey gin shepherd gin stealer gin’s piss

Verb Entry 5

  1. To remove the seeds from cotton with a cotton gin.
  2. To trap something in a gin.

Forms

gins ginning ginned

Derived

gin up

Verb Early, Modern

  1. To begin.
    • Gon. All three of them are deſperate : their great guilt / (Like poyſon giuen to worke a great time after) / Now gins to bite the ſpirits :[…] - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr....

Origin

Inherited from Middle English ginnen (“to begin”), contraction of beginnen.

Forms

gins ginning gan gun