chin n.2
1. (also chin-chin) talk, chatter, conversation.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Rebel Yell and The Yankee Hurrah (1985) 45: Too much chin of his kind has more than once improved the market for rope. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Kent & Sussex Courier 9 Dec. 6/1: When next she meets him she had better swivel-eye him and pay him a chin-chin, and then perhaps he will Tip her a Fyebuck or Half a couter. | |
| Forty Liars (1888) 32: For professional melody of the chin, you certainly take the cake. | |
| Confessions of Convict 29: How I thank Hope for the many social chins we had together! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Truth (Sydney) 6 Oct. 6/4: There are that bloak, that Cabbie Jim, / With awl his spiteful chin. | |
| ‘Cape Horn Gospel II’ in Salt-Water Ballads 22: Then the mate came dancin’ on to the scene, ’n’ he says, ‘Now quit yer chin’. | |
| Out for the Coin 76: Say! what is dis, a chin-chin to a show down? | |
| Jim Hickey 39: See if you can give the telegraph operator the busy chin-chin while I do some more cooking. | |
| Burlington Wkly Free Press (VT) 11 Apr. 15/1: We might as well have a sort o’ final chin-chin while there’s still time. | |
| Lonely Plough (1931) 159: Don’t clear out before I’ve had a chin with you. | |
| Flying Fighter 289: I went back and resumed the ‘chin-chin’ with Kerr and the other boys. | |
| (con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 178: Wait till everybody’s gone — must have a good old-fashioned chin with you, old fellow! | |
| Iron Man 131: We’re all betting on your boy and we came out for a chin. | |
| Tragedy of Z 41: I’ve had a chin-chin with the servants. | |
| ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 113: This Gandesi called up some dead number and had himself a phony chin with it. | |
| Iceman Cometh Act II: I’ll go and have a private chin with the Commissioner. | |
| ‘Growing up in Chad Street’ in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 30 103: Mum and Mrs. Martin had a good chin-chin at the fence about sickness and husbands. | |
| Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 171: Call me sometime and we’ll have a good chin. | |
| Generation of Victors 364: Let’s get together for a private chin-chin. | |
| 5 Dec. 🌐 Did you know? [...] Other ‘chin’ expressions for loose lips include ‘chin-music’ (a noun meaning ‘idle talk, chatter’), ‘chinfest’ (another noun synonymous with ‘chat’), and ‘chin’ itself (which can be used either as a verb meaning ‘to chatter’ or a noun meaning ‘a chat’). |
2. (US) cheek, impudence; nagging.
| Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 779: Chin, Chinning. Back-talk, impudence. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Sept. 17/3: [He] gave her some ‘chin’ about his withheld wages, and she stabbed him In the breast with a pair of shears. | |
| ‘Cape Horn Gospel II’ in Salt-Water Ballads n.p.: Jake was a dirty Dago lad, an’ he gave the skipper chin. | |
| ‘On a Bender’ in Benno and Some of the Push 75: Benno swung round on ’em [...] shouting how he wouldn’t take chin from no Little Willie. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 111: Don’t nag. Whatever you do, don’t nag. Don’t give him a perpetual-motion line of chin. |
3. (US) a threat.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Nov. 6/2: ‘I ain’t much on chin, but, by Heavens, if you come any crooked deal in these here racket, you’ll be left, and you can bet on it’. |
In derivatives
(US) any meeting at which there is a good deal of talking and gossip.
| Wichita Dly Eagle (KS) 26 Aug. 1/5: [headline] bryan fires questions Hold a Triumphant Chinfest at Omaha [...] Mr Bryan made two speeches here today [etc]. | |
 | Buffalo Times (NY) 8 Oct. 14/3: The occasion was one of the frequent but irregular chinfests that are common with this set. The spokesman, as usual, was the self-styled writer from the land of Bohemia. | |
| Democratic Chin 29 June [synd. col.] With a roar that shook international squirrel cages to their foundations, the Democratic chin fiesta cracked open. | |
| ‘Guide to Variety’ AS XV:2 204/1: chinfest. A conference. | |
| Cobweb [film script] You’re a good man at a chinfest [HDAS]. | |
| in DARE. | |
| 5 Dec. 🌐 Did you know? [...] Other ‘chin’ expressions for loose lips include ‘chin-music’ (a noun meaning ‘idle talk, chatter’), ‘chinfest’ (another noun synonymous with ‘chat’), and ‘chin’ itself (which can be used either as a verb meaning ‘to chatter’ or a noun meaning ‘a chat’). | |
| in San Antonio Express-News 7 Apr. 🌐 And I was sincerely (OK, somewhat sincerely) asking the mayor for help when I tossed ‘Rio City’ and ‘Jonathan Geis’ at him during the Friday afternoon powwow. (Read Sunday’s column for further yard-dog analysis of the two-hour chinfest.). |
In compounds
(US) chatter.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 23: Can the chin goods and get on the job. | |
| East Oregonian (Pendleton, OR) 7 Dec. 8/3: Dat guy kin spiel out de funny chin goods. | |
| Eve. World (NY) 18 Feb. 12/2: Unless the Representatives take in a reef or two on their chin goods the [Congressional] Record will be be so thick that nobody will be able to read it. | |
| Wine of Life 282: Oh, no; you can’t flag me off the landscape that light and airy way, at least not until I spill a little of the chin-goods I’ve been gatherin’ up for you. |
(US) idle chatter.
| St Louis Post-Dispatch 22 Feb. 15/5: ‘I don’t see why you demand woman’s suffrage, Mrs Chinjaw, since you always make your husband vote just as you wish’. | |
| ‘Paul Bunyan Talk’ in AS XVII:4 221/1: Chinjaw. Small talk; social conversation; its nearest literary equivalent may be ‘palaver’. |
see separate entry.
(Aus.) chatter, conversation.
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Nov. 1/2: [T]he chin stuff runs thus: Billy: ‘What are yer throwing off at. Do yer think I pinched the brown?’. |
(Irish) a Protestant, an English person.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Glorious Heresies 15: ‘He looks Irish. Or maybe a Sasanach. Rooted down in West Cork with the rest of the chin-wobblers’. |
(US) a chat, a conversation; speechifying.
| Courier-Trib. (Seneca, KS) 16 Mar. 3/3: Col. Murphy sold off the remnants of his household goods at auction [...] Billy Russell did the chin-work. | |
| Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 14 May 4/5: An Enquirer reporter saw Charley Kahn and Colonel A.E. Jones in close confab. Kahn seemed to be doing the most chin-work. | |
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 29 Apr. 4/1: The universal demand is to stop chin-work and get down to voting on the bill. | |
| North-Eastern Dly Gaz. (Middlesborough) 31 Jan. 4/2: Mrs Chinwork: ‘Mrs Dash is a good, generous soul, isn’t she?’ Mrs Chatters: ‘Oh yes!’. | |
| Hants. Teleg. 6 June 12/7: Mrs Chinwork: Miss Elder is trying to make a new woman of her self. Mrs Chattermore: Is she? Mrs Chinwork: Yes; she has already knocked fifteen years off her age. | |
| L.A. Times 21 July 4/6: She has not time for chin-work when / She wants a talking feast, / To get the spielrs for it she / Imports ’em from the east. | |
| Tampa Times (FL) 22 Apr. 8/2: There is considerable chinworl going on over the country about the proposed Willard-Fulton fray. | |
| Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 20 June 6/4: It was a remarkable outburst of oratorical chinworks. The sentaor had just reached that point in frenzied patriotism [etc]. | |
| Northwest Arkansas Times (AR) 8 July 3/3: ‘We’ve got a governor that will journey clear to Moscow to do chin-work with Kosygin’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US campus) a fight, a blow to the jaw.
| College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Chin check (noun) A hit in the jaw; a fight. | |
| Razorblade Tears 46: ‘[T]he next time you say something like that I’m going to chin-check you’. |
see separate entry.
a brooch.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Autobiog. in DSUE (1984). |
(US teen) a beard.
| Clueless [film script] josh: I’m growing a goatee. cher: Oh, that’s good. You don’t want to be the last one at the coffee house without chin pubes. |
the female perineum, considered in the context of giving a woman oral sex.
| JasesJokes.com 🌐 Q: What is the area between the vagina and the anus called? A: A chin rest! |
a beard.
| Killing Pool 186: ‘Like the beard’ [...] ‘The chin-rug stays until we wrap this job.’. |
see scraper n. (3)
(US) facial hair.
| On Broadway 29 Oct. [synd. col.] Robert St John [...] confusing Dorothy Thompson and others with his Rex Stout-John Vandercook chin spinach. |
(US) a narrow goatee beard.
| Shorty McCabe 221: A pair of white Chaunceys and a frosted chin-splitter . |
see separate entries.
a barber.
| Sporting Times 29 Mar. 6/5: What’s worse than a boring barber? Pitcher [...] went into a King’s Cross chin-tearer’s to be scraped. |
see separate entries.
In exclamations
see separate entry.