Abbreviation ofgeneva, alteration ofDutchgenever(“juniper”) fromOld Frenchgenevre (modern Frenchgenièvre), fromVulgar Latinziniperus, fromLatiniūniperus(“juniper”). Hencegin rummy (first attested 1941).

• enPR:jĭn,IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɪn/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• Audio(General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ɪn
• Homophone:djinn

gin (countable anduncountable,pluralgins)

2. Acolourlessnon-agedalcoholicliquor made bydistillingfermentedgrains such asbarley,corn,oats orrye withjuniperberries; thebase for manycocktails.
3. (uncountable)Gin rummy.
4. (poker) Drawing the best card or combination of cards.

   Johnny Chan held jack-nine, and hitgin when a queen-ten-eight board was dealt out.

• genever
• juniper

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “gin”, inOnline Etymology Dictionary.
• “gin”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.

Partly fromMiddle Englishgin,ginne(“cleverness, scheme, talent, device, machine”), fromOld Frenchgin, anaphetism ofOld Frenchengin(“engine”); and partly fromMiddle Englishgrin,grine(“snare, trick, stratagem, deceit, temptation, noose, halter, instrument”), fromOld Englishgrin,gryn,giren(“snare, gin, noose”).

• enPR:jĭn,IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɪn/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ɪn
• Homophone:djinn

gin (pluralgins)

1. (obsolete) Atrick; adevice orinstrument.
2. (obsolete) Ascheme;contrivance;artifice; a figurativetrap orsnare.
   • c.1503–1512,John Skelton,Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor,John Skelton: The Complete English Poems,1983,→OCLC, page64, lines91–94:

     The church dores were sparred,
     Fast boltyd and barryd,
     Yet wyth a pretygyn
     I fortuned to come in,[…]

   • 1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London:[…] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC:

     treason and deceiptfullgin

3. Asnare ortrap forgame.
   • 1895,Thomas Hardy, “IV-ii”, inJude the Obscure, London: Osgood:

     It was the cry of a rabbit caught in agin.

4. Amachine forraising ormovingheavyobjects, consisting of atripod formed of poles united at the top, with awindlass,pulleys, ropes, etc.
5. (mining) Ahoistingdrum, usuallyvertical; awhim.
6. Apile driver.
7. Awindpump.
8. Acotton gin.
9. Aninstrument oftorture worked withscrews.

gin (third-person singular simple presentgins,present participleginning,simple past and past participleginned)

1. (transitive) Toremove theseeds fromcotton with a cotton gin.
2. (transitive) To trap something in a gin.

• gin up

• → Italian:ginnare

Inherited fromMiddle Englishginnen(“to begin”), contraction ofbeginnen.

• IPA^(key):/ɡɪn/

gin (third-person singular simple presentgins,present participleginning,simple pastgan,past participlegun)

1. (archaic) Tobegin.
   • 1610–1611 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene iii],page14:

     Gon. All three of them are deſperate : their great guilt / (Like poyſon giuen to worke a great time after) / Nowgins to bite the ſpirits :[…]

Borrowed fromDharugdyin(“woman”), but having acquired a derogatory tone.^[1]

• enPR:jĭn,IPA^(key):/d͡ʒɪn/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ɪn
• Homophone:djinn

gin (pluralgins)

1. (Australia, now consideredoffensive,ethnicslur) AnAboriginalwoman.
   • 1869, Thomas Livingstone Mitchell,Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, volume 1,page273:

     His next shot was discharged amongst the mob, and most unfortunately wounded thegin already mentioned ; who, with a child fastened to her back, slid down the bank, and lay, apparently dying, with her legs in the water.

   • 1879 December 31, “Obituary”, inThe Hobart Mercury, page 2:

     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.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter,Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form inPort Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XXI,[1]

     From my position I could see thegins pointing back, and as the men turned they looked for a moment and then made a wild rush for the entrance.

   • 1938,Xavier Herbert, chapter XXI, inCapricornia, D. Appleton-Century, published1943,page353:

     How they must have laughed about the strutting of her whose mother was a wanton and aunt agin!

   • 1988, Tom Cole,Hell West and Crooked, Angus & Robertson, published1995, page179:

     Dad said Shoesmith and Thompson had made one error that cost them their lives by letting thegins into the camp, and the blacks speared them all.

   • 2008, Bill Marsh, Jack Goldsmith,Goldie: Adventures in a Vanishing Australia,unnumbered page:

     But there was thisgin there, see, what they called a kitchen girl.

• lubra

• blackgin

Cognate toScotsgin(“if”): perhaps fromgi(v)en,^[1] or a compound in which the first element is fromOld Englishġif (Englishif) and the second is cognate toEnglishan(“if”) (compareiffen),^[1] or perhaps fromagain.^[1]

• IPA^(key):/ɡɪn/

gin

1. (chieflyScotland,Northern England,Southern US,Appalachia)If.
   • 1605, Richard Verstegan,Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, in Antiquities: Concerning the Most Noble, and Renowned English Nation:

     […]for pronouncing according as one would ſay atLondon I would eat more cheeſe if I had it, the Northern man ſaith, Ay ſuld eat mare cheeſegin ay hadet, and the Weſterne man ſaithChud eat more cheeſe anchad it.

   • 1804, Robert Couper,Poetry,I. 196:

     Gin the plough rests on the bank, / The loom, the nation, dies.

   • 1809, Thomas Donaldson,Poems, section 76:

     An'gin I'm weel and can keep sober / You may look for it in October.

   • 1815, Robert Anderson,Ballads in the Cumberland dialect, page152:

     He's get han' and siller, /Gin he fancies me.

   • 1860, J. P. K. Shuttleworth,Scarsdale; Or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Border, Thirty Years Ago, page158:

     yon felley at Barleigh has wrote farrantly (fairly) to my naunt;gin Robin could bur see ť letter he'd foind no fawt wi' me.

   • 1870, John Christopher Atkinson,Lost; or, What came of a slip from 'honour bright'., page19:

     Wheeah, Ah thinks thee could,gin ye tried.

   • 1876, Mrs. George Linnaeus Banks,The Manchester Man, page15:

     "Aw'd never ha slept i' mi bedgin that little un had bin dreawnded, an' me lookin' on loike a stump. Neay; that lass wur Bess, moi wench. We'n no notion wheer th' lad's mother is." Mr. Clough would have pressed the money upon him, but he put it back with a motion of his han.

   • 1880,Wooers, Banks, I. iv:

     […]gin schoo sets off in a tantrum an' flaah's t'mistress wiv her blutherin[…]

• -ïng,Ing,IGN,@ing,ing,nig,NGI,-ing,GNI

• džin

Borrowed fromEnglishgin.

• IPA^(key):[ˈdʒɪn]
• Hyphenation:gin
• Rhymes:-ɪn

gin m inan

1. gin(alcoholic beverage)

• “gin”, inPříruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech),1935–1957
• “gin”, inSlovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech),1960–1971, 1989

<Englishgin

gin

1. (rare)Alternative spelling ofgini(“gin”).

• “gin”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2024-04-05

Borrowed fromEnglishgin.

• IPA^(key):/dʒin/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones:djinn,jean

gin m (pluralgins)

1. gin

• “gin”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

FromOld Irishgein, verbal noun ofgainithir(“is born”), fromProto-Celtic*ganyetor (compareWelshgeni(“be born, bear”)) fromProto-Indo-European*ǵenh₁- (compareEnglishkin,Latingignō(“beget, bear”),Ancient Greekγίγνομαι(gígnomai,“become”),Sanskritजनति(janati,“beget”)).

• IPA^(key):/ˈɟɪnʲ/

gin f (genitive singulargine,nominative pluralginte)

1. begetting,birth
2. fetus
3. offspring,child,person
4. generatingsource

• aonghin
• athghin f(“counterpart”)

gin (present analyticgineann,future analyticginfidh,verbal nounginiúint,past participleginte)

1. give birth to(used only in the autonomous form)
2. germinate,sprout;springforth;originate
3. beget,procreate
4. generate,produce

• athghin(“regenerate”,verb)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “gin”, inFoclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm,→ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “gainithir”, ineDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

gin

1. woman,girl

• John Gladstone Steele,Aboriginal Pathways: in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River

gin

1. Rōmaji transcription ofぎん

Inherited fromFrenchgagner(“to earn, to gain”).

• IPA^(key):/ɡɛ̃/
• Rhymes:-ɛ̃

gin

1. (transitive) tohave(to own, to possess)

   Mâ tantgin dé sœr. ―My aunt has two sisters.

2. (transitive) to have under one'scontrol, in one'spower
3. (transitive) to have(a condition), tobe

   Mogin swaf. ―I'm thirsty. (literally, “I have thirst.”)

   Mogin pœr. ―I'm scared. (literally, “I have fear.”)

4. (transitive) to be(anage)

   Ligin 19 zan. ―She's 19 years old. (literally, “She has 19 years.”)

5. (copulative) toget, tobecome
6. (transitive) toget, tomake(cause someone or something to do something)
7. (auxiliary) tohave to

   Synonyms:bezwin,dwa,gin pou,ifo

8. (auxiliary)should

   Synonym:sé

9. (auxiliary) tobe going to,will

   Synonyms:a,alé,kouri,va

• Mirrors the use of Frenchavoir(“to have”) in some ways. For example, Louisiana Creolegin pou mirrors Frenchavoir pour(“to be obligated to”).

gin

1. Nonstandard spelling ofgīn.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

• IPA^(key):[ɡʲin]

gin m

1. Alternative form ofgiun(“mouth”)

See the etymology of the correspondinglemma form.

• IPA^(key):[ɡʲinʲ]

gin

1. genitivesingular ofgen(“smile”)
2. inflection ofgen(“sword”):
   1. accusative/dativesingular
   2. nominative/vocative/accusativedual

• dżin

Unadapted borrowing fromEnglishgin.

• IPA^(key):/ˈd͡ʐin/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes:-in
• Syllabification:gin
• Homophones:dżin,dżinn

gin m inan

1. gin(alcoholic beverage)

• gin inWielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gin in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing fromEnglishgin.

gin m (invariable)

1. Alternative form ofgim

Borrowed fromEnglishgin.

gin n (pluralginuri)

1. gin

• IPA^(key):/ɡɪn/

Cognate to dialectal Englishgin(“if”), which see for more.

gin

1. if(conditional; subjunctive)

   Gin A war ye, A wad gang. ―If I were you, I would go.

   • 1778, Alexander Ross,Fortunate Shepherdess, page124:

     Then says the squire,
     Gin that be all your fear,
     She sanna want a man, for want of gear.
     A thousand pounds a year, well burthen free,
     I mak her sure of,gin she'll gang with me.

     (pleaseadd an English translation of this quotation)

FromOld English[Term?].

gin

1. Against; nearby; towards.

   gin night ―(please add an English translation of this usage example)

FromOld Irishgainithir(“is born”),^[1] fromProto-Celtic*ganyetor (compareWelshgeni(“be born, bear”)) fromProto-Indo-European*ǵenh₁- (compareEnglishkin,Latingignō(“beget, bear”),Ancient Greekγίγνομαι(gígnomai,“become”),Sanskritजनति(janati,“beget”)).

• IPA^(key):/ɡ̊ʲin/^[2]

gin (pastghin,futureginidh,verbal noungintinn,past participleginte)

1. beget,produce,father
2. create,engender
3. procreate,reproduce
4. breed
5. (computing)generate

• ath-ghin

gin f

1. any,anything
2. anyone,anybody

   cha robhgin ann a-raoir ―there wasnobody/none there last night

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “gin”, inFaclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[3], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited,→ISBN
• MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “gin”, inAn Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[4], Stirling,→ISBN

Borrowed fromEnglishgin.

• Rhymes:-in

gin m (pluralgines)

1. gin

   Synonym:ginebra

• “gin”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

gin

1. Romanization of𒁺(gin)

Borrowed fromEnglishgin.

• IPA^(key):/jɪn/ orIPA^(key):/dʒɪn/

gin c orn

1. gin (liquor)

• enbär(“juniper berry”)

• gin inSvensk ordbok (SO)
• gin inSvenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gin inSvenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• -ing,Ing

• gen,gennyf

• IPA^(key):/ɡɪn/

gin

1. (colloquial)(North Wales)first/second-personsingular ofgan

gin

1. Alternative spelling ofgeen

CompareScotsgin.

• IPA^(key):/ɡɪn/

gin

1. if

   Synonym:yith

   • 1927, “THE FORTH MAN'S GRACE AFTER A SCANTY DINNER”, inTHE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page137, line 3:

     Gin we have no mo' maate, it maakes no mo' matter,

     [If we have no more meat, it makes no more matter,]

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, inJournal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎^[5], volume17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page137

• IPA^(key):/ɡĩ̄/

gin

1. (Igbomina) tochip off asmall part of something

   Synonym:yin

   ìyáginuṣuléọmọ lọ́wọ́ ―The motherchipped off a small part of a yam to give to the child

2. (Igbomina) totrim theedges of somethingwith arazor

   babáginirunọmọnáà ―The fathertrimmed the edges of the child's hair