loin
- Usually loins. the part or parts of the human body or of a quadruped animal on either side of the spinal column, between the false ribs and hipbone.
- a cut of meat from this region of an animal, especially a portion including the vertebrae of such parts.
- loins,
- the parts of the body between the hips and the lower ribs, especially regarded as the seat of physical strength and generative power.
- the genital and pubic area; genitalia.
- gird (up) one's loins, to prepare oneself for something requiring readiness, strength, or endurance: He girded his loins to face his competitor.
Origin of loin
Examples from the Web for loin
Contemporary Examples
Rub the loin with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
Historical Examples
The ribs and the loin cut in one piece are shown in Fig. 18.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
Pork steaks or chops should be taken from the neck, or the loin.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
Then put in some bits of loin of pork cut into dice and some bits of lean ham.
The Cook's Decameron: A Study in Taste:Mrs. W. G. Waters
Sauce for a loin of veal was made of all kinds of sweet herbs, with the yolks of two or three hard eggs minced very fine.
A loin of pork with the fat and kidney taken out and boned, and a forehand of pork boned, are very nice dressed in the same way.
loin
- Also called: lumbus anatomy the part of the lower back and sides between the pelvis and the ribsRelated adjective: lumbar
- a cut of meat from this part of an animal
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for loin
n.
early 14c., "side of the body of an animal used for food," from Old French loigne "hip, haunch, lumbar region," from Vulgar Latin *lumbea, from *lumbea caro "meat of the loin," from fem. of *lumbeus, adjective used as a noun, from Latin lumbus "loin" (see lumbago).
Replaced Old English lendenu "loins," from Proto-Germanic *landwin- (cf. German Lende "loin," Lenden "loins;" Old High German lenti, Old Saxon lendin, Middle Dutch lendine, Dutch lende, Old Norse lend).
The Latin word perhaps was borrowed from a Germanic source. In reference to the living human body, it is attested from late 14c. In Biblical translations, often used for "that part of the body that should be covered and about which the clothes are bound" (1520s). Related: Loins.
loin
(loin)- The part of the body on either side of the spinal column between the ribs and the pelvis.
Idioms and Phrases with loin
loin
see gird one's loins.