Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gin

Gin, prep. [AS. geán. See Again.] Against; near by; towards; as, gin night. [Scot.] A. Ross.

Gin, conj. [See Gin, prep.] If. [Scotch] Jamieson.

Gin, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Gan, Gon, or Gun; p. pr. & vb. n. Ginning.] [OE. ginnen, AS. ginnan (in comp.), prob. orig., to open, cut open, cf. OHG. inginnan to begin, open, cut open, and prob. akin to AS. gīnan to yawn, and E. yawn. √31 See Yawn, v. i., and cf. Begin.] To begin; — often followed by an infinitive without to; as, gan tell. See Gan. [Obs. or Archaic] "He gan to pray." Chaucer.

Gin (jĭn), n. [Contr. from Geneva. See 2d Geneva.] A strong alcoholic liquor, distilled from rye and barley, and flavored with juniper berries; — also called Hollands and Holland gin, because originally, and still very extensively, manufactured in Holland. Common gin is usually flavored with turpentine.

Gin (jĭn), n. [A contraction of engine.]

1. Contrivance; artifice; a trap; a snare. Chaucer. Spenser.

2. (a) A machine for raising or moving heavy weights, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys, ropes, etc. (b) (Mining) A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.

3. A machine for separating the seeds from cotton; a cotton gin.

☞ The name is also given to an instrument of torture worked with screws, and to a pump moved by rotary sails.

Gin block, a simple form of tackle block, having one wheel, over which a rope runs; — called also whip gin, rubbish pulley, and monkey wheel. — Gin power, a form of horse power for driving a cotton gin. — Gin race, or Gin ring, the path of the horse when putting a gin in motion. Halliwell. — Gin saw, a saw used in a cotton gin for drawing the fibers through the grid, leaving the seed in the hopper. — Gin wheel. (a) In a cotton gin, a wheel for drawing the fiber through the grid; a brush wheel to clean away the lint. (b) (Mining) the drum of a whim.

Gin, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ginned; p. pr. & vb. n. Ginning.] 1. To catch in a trap. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

2. To clear of seeds by a machine; as, to gin cotton.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.