rind
1 Americannoun
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a thick and firm outer coat or covering, as of certain fruits, cheeses, and meats.
watermelon rind; orange rind; bacon rind.
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the bark of a tree.
noun
noun
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a hard outer layer or skin on bacon, cheese, etc
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the outer layer of a fruit or of the spore-producing body of certain fungi
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the outer layer of the bark of a tree
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rind1
before 900; Middle English, Old English rind ( e ) tree bark, crust; cognate with German Rinde
Origin of rind2
1300–50; Middle English rynd; cognate with Middle Dutch rijn, Middle Low German rīn
Explanation
A rind is a thick, inedible peel. You'll have to remove the rind of your orange before you eat it. Most rinds occur naturally, growing to cover and protect a fruit or a plant. You can also call the thick, waxy covering on a wheel of cheese a rind, or the inedible skin on a sausage or another food. The Old English root rinde originally meant "bark or crust," and later also "peel of a fruit or vegetable."
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.
In a surreal perspective shift, the fruit that once loomed so large is now small enough to rest on a table, with nothing left except the rind and a few silver spoons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
In 2022, the consortium began introducing tracking chips, no larger than a grain of rice, as part of the label embedded in the hard rind of the cheese.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2024
The elevated snack tray comes with crudités alongside a pesto yogurt sauce, a tuna tostada, a carpaccio hand roll, shrimp toast and a refreshing, fruity and herbaceous granita that comes in a hollowed-out tangerine rind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
My steak, medium-rare per my answer to our kind server’s inquiry, came with a tangle of smoky-grilled wild mushrooms and wildly sour pickled watermelon rind, all garnished with a pretty orange nasturtium.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
She wore a set of protruding false teeth cut from the yellow rind of a sweetlime.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
