tine

From Middle English tine, alteration of Middle English tinde, tind, from Old English tind, from Proto-West Germanic *tind, Proto-Germanic *tindaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dénts (“tooth, peg”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tiende, Tiene (“prong, tine”), German Zind, Zint (“prong”). Compare also the related English tind and German Zinne.

• IPA^(key): /taɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪn
• Homophone: Tyne

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.
   • 1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Untamed:

     The tines of the fork were quite evidently of iron or steel, the girl did not know which, while the handle and the spoon were of the same material as the smaller vessels.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 9, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, pages 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.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XXVII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     “I answer not the challenge of my prisoner,” said Front-de-Bœuf; “nor shalt thou, Maurice de Bracy.—Giles,” he continued, “hang the franklin’s glove upon the tine of yonder branched antlers: […]

   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC:

     “By my faith, sirs,” he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his escort, “unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey.

3. (dialect) A wild vetch or tare.

• prong
• tooth
• tool

Unknown, possibly related to etymology 1.

• tyne

tine (comparative tiner, superlative tinest)

1. small, diminutive

• tiny

See teen (“affliction”).

tine

1. (obsolete) Trouble; distress; teen.^[1]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     As wither'd Weed through cruel Winter's Tine

See tind.

tine (third-person singular simple present tines, present participle tining, simple past and past participle tined)

1. (obsolete) To kindle; to set on fire.^[1]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Coals of contention and hot vengeance tin'd.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     The Air attrite to Fire, as late the Clouds / Juſtling or puſht with Winds rude in thir ſhock / Tine the ſlant Lightning, […]

   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC:

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

2. (obsolete) To rage; to smart.^[1]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

From Middle English tynen, from Old English tȳnan, from tūn (“enclosure”) (modern town).

tine (third-person singular simple present tines, present participle tining, simple past and past participle tined)

1. (archaic) To shut in, or enclose.^[1]
   • 1852, Alfred the Great, translated by Alfred Committee, The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great, volume II, page 388:

     When I was then surrounded on every side by the fiends, and tined about by the blindness of the darkness, then hove I my eyes up and looked hither and yond, whether any help were to come to me, that I might be rescued; […]

   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:

     “Terrible trying,” said Oak. “I’ve been wet through twice a-day, either in snow or rain, this last fortnight. Cainy and I haven’t tined our eyes to-night.”

• betine

• Tien, neti, nite, tein

tine

1. alternative form of tini

From Arabic تِينَة (tīna).

tine f (plural tinát)

1. fig tree

• Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 178

• teine (superseded)
• tinidh

From Old Irish teine,^[1] from Proto-Celtic *teɸnets, from Proto-Indo-European *tep- (“hot”).^[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʲɪnʲə/^[3]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈtʲɪnʲi/^[4] (corresponding to the form tinidh)

tine f (genitive singular tine or tineadh, nominative plural tinte or tintreacha)

1. fire

Standard inflection (fourth declension):

Alternative inflection (fifth declension):

• Alternative plural: tintreacha (Cois Fharraige)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “tine”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “teine”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 730
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “tine”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “tine”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

tīne

1. vocative singular of tīnus

tine (subjective pronoun þou)

1. (chiefly Northern and northern East Midland dialectal) alternative form of þin (“thy”)

tine (subjective þou)

1. (chiefly Northern and northern East Midland dialectal) alternative form of þin (“thine”)

From Old Norse þíðna.

• tina (a-infinitive)

tine (present tense tinar/tiner, past tense tina/tinte, past participle tina/tint, passive infinitive tinast, present participle tinande, imperative tine/tin)

1. (ambitransitive) to thaw

Through French from Latin tina (“wine-vessel”). Akin to Danish tejne.

tine f (definite singular tina, indefinite plural tiner, definite plural tinene)

1. a traditional bentwood box

From Old Norse tína.

• tina (a-infinitive)

tine (present tense tiner, past tense tinte, past participle tint, passive infinitive tinast, present participle tinande, imperative tin)

1. to pluck or rattle to remove fish from a fishing net
2. to remove the awn from the grain
3. to extract a nut from its shell

• “tine” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• eint, -inet, IT-en, nite, tein, tien, Tine

• IPA^(key): /ˈti.ne/

tine

1. dative singular of tin

tine

1. inflection of tinir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Inherited from Latin tē, as with mine, sine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈti.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

tine (stressed accusative form of tu)

1. (direct object, preceded by preposition, such as pe, cu, la, or pentru) you

   te iubesc pe tine

   I love you

• te (unstressed form)

• mine
• sine

• theene

From Middle English tynen, from Old English tȳnan. Cognate with English teen.

• IPA^(key): /tiːn/, /t̪iːn/

tine

1. to shut, close
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Tine a dher.

     Close the door.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 72