tine

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

• IPA^(key): /taɪn/

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• 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.
   • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter XXVII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662:

     “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 224313202:

     “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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     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. To kindle; to set on fire.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Coals of contention and hot vengeance tin'd.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     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 863244003:

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

2. (obsolete) To rage; to smart.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     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. To shut in, or enclose.
   • 1852, Alfred Committee (translator), Alfred the Great, 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 2481962:

     “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

• teine (superseded)
• tinidh

From Old Irish teine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʲɪnʲə/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈtʲɪnʲi/[1] (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)

• lus tine m (“fire-weed, rose-bay willow-herb”)
• tine ealaíne (“firework”)
• tine leictreach (“electric fire”)
• le thine (“on fire”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “tine”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 teine”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904), “teine”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 730
• Entries containing “tine” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “tine” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 57

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. (transitive, intransitive) 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

From Latin tē, as with mine, sine.

• IPA^(key): /ˈti.ne/

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.

tine

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

     Tine a dher.

     Close the door.

• Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 72