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Webster 1913 Edition


Whin

Whin

,
Noun.
[W.
chwyn
weeds, a single weed.]
1.
(Bot.)
(a)
Gorse; furze. See
Furze
.
Through the
whins
, and by the cairn.
Burns.
(b)
Woad-waxed.
Gray.
2.
Same as
Whinstone
.
[Prov. Eng.]
Moor whin
or
Petty whin
(Bot.)
,
a low prickly shrub (
Genista Anglica
) common in Western Europe.
Whin bruiser
,
a machine for cutting and bruising whin, or furze, to feed cattle on.
Whin Sparrow
(Zool.)
,
the hedge sparrow.
[Prov. Eng.]
Whin Thrush
(Zool.)
,
the redwing.
[Prov. Eng.]

Webster 1828 Edition


Whin

WHIN

,
Noun.
[L.] Gorse; furze; a plant of the genus Ulex.

Definition 2024


whin

whin

English

Noun

whin (countable and uncountable, plural whins)

  1. Gorse; furze.
    • 1790, Robert Burns, Tam o' Shanter, 1828, Thomas Park (editor), Works of the British Poets, Volume XX: The Poems of Robert Burns, page 65,
      By this time he was cross the ford, / Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor'd; / And past the birks and meikle stane, / Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane; / And through the whins, and by the cairn, / Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn; / And near the thorn, aboon the well, / Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, A Scots Quair, 1995, Canongate Books, page 38,
      And sometimes they clambered down […] and saw the whin bushes climb black the white hills beside them and far and away the blink of lights across the moors where folk lay happed and warm.
  2. The plant woad-waxen (Genista tinctoria).
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)
  3. Whinstone.

Derived terms