seine
1 Americannoun
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seines
plural
verb (used with object)
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seines,
present (3rd person singular)
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seined,
past participle, past
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seining
present participle
-
to fish for or catch with a seine.
-
to use a seine in (water).
verb (used without object)
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seines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
seined,
past participle, past
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seining
present participle
noun
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a river in France, flowing NW through Paris to the English Channel. 480 miles (773 km) long.
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a former department in N France.
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
seinesimple
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seinessimple
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have seinedperfect
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has seinedperfect
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am seiningprogressive
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are seiningprogressive
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is seiningprogressive
-
have been seiningperfect progressive
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has been seiningperfect progressive
Past
-
seinedsimple
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had seinedperfect
-
was seiningprogressive
-
were seiningprogressive
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had been seiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of seine
before 950; Middle English seyne, Old English segne < West Germanic *sagina < Latin sagēna < Greek sagḗnē fishing net
Vocabulary lists containing seine
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Many birds drown in purse seine nets each year.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025
The fishing practices, including trawling and the use of gill and seine nets, were shown to cause physical pressures such as abrasion, smothering, siltation and total habitat loss.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024
Using a seine, the Karuk Tribe fisheries team formed a circle and pulled up their catch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024
The most common method used to catch oily fish is known as "seine" fishing, one of the most environmentally friendly fishing techniques in use today:
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2024
The eggs were slightly adhesive, clinging to the hand and to the bobbinet seine.
From Fishes of the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas by W. L. Minckley
Mr. Fiennes roams the gardens that surround the home Maupassant had built in 1883 and cycles by a stretch of the Seine where the author sailed his boats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
River levels have been much lower than average - in some places exceptionally low -with the Seine, Rhine and Danube among those particularly affected.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
AmaWaterways just introduced a new culinary experience, Cooking with Mamie, for its voyages on the Seine River in France.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Chip falls in with a troupe of street performers, evades the police, juggles along the Seine and eventually wanders into a smoky bar, where Penelope is strumming her guitar.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
Crossing the Seine I saw a string of barges being towed empty down the current, riding high, the bargemen at the sweeps as they came toward the bridge.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
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Local communities believe that certain fishing practices, such as spearfishing with scuba gear and semi-industrial fishing with purse seines and night lights, are major contributors to the decline of fish stocks.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024
Joining a flotilla of competing boats near Point Roberts, the Emancipator initiated a set and then began pulling in its seines.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2023
Good carbon bargains tend to be seafood caught in midwater trawls and purse seines — nets that don't touch the bottom of the ocean.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2021
For three years researchers working in the Sound of Elsinore, Denmark, sampled fish with traps, seines, gillnets, push nets, fishing poles, bottom trawls, along with visual observations by snorkelers during the day and at night.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 3, 2015
“Oh, the river’s pretty,” he said, “but fishing’s hard work. You try hauling one of those seines up from the bottom sometime and you’ll find out.”
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
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In the 1800s, when the pupfish swam throughout the valley, the Paiute peoples seined the fish for food.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2021
We seined under blue skies, taking in the squawking seabirds and miles of wild tidal beach.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 26, 2016
From manufacturers and retailers Hubbard, promising heavy plugs on the air, seined some $560,000 in merchandise.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Most of the supporting cast were amateurs seined from Philadelphia dramatic groups, or girl friends of members of the crew stuck into the film just to maintain employee relations.
From Time Magazine Archive
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A man who fishes with seined minnows is no account.
From Tales and Trails of Wakarusa by Alexander Miller Harvey
Reef netting differs from other fishing methods – gillnetting, beach seining and purse seining — in that the boats and net are stationary; they’re tethered to the sea bottom with minimal anchors.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
These artisanal techniques are far less harmful than trawling, purse seining or driftnets – and than the reckless sport-fishing boats speeding at 10 knots, trailing long lines.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 13, 2020
A bill stalled in the State Legislature would prohibit purse seining of menhaden in New York.
From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2018
The way fishing has been the past couple of seasons she’s thankful she got out of seining, she said.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 1, 2017
Men and boys were fishing from the docks, and sometimes we could see people out in boats seining.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.