▪ I. din, n.1
(dɪn)
Forms: 1–5 dyne, 1–7 dyn, 3 dune (-y-), 3–7 dine, 3 – din (also 4 deone, dene, 5–6 dynne, 5–7 dinne, 7 deane, dynn, dinn).
[OE. dyne (:—OTeut.*duni-z), and dynn, corresp. to ON. dynr din (:— *dunju-z or *dunjo-z); f. Germanic root dun-: cf. Skr. dhûni roaring, a torrent; also ON. duna fem. ‘rushing or thundering noise’ (perh. a later formation from the verb). Elsewhere in WGer. only the derived vb. appears: see din v.]
A loud noise; particularly a continued confused or resonant sound, which stuns or distresses the ear.
| a 1000 Satan 466 (Gr.) Se dyne becom hlud of heofonum. a 1000 Sal. & Sat. 324 (Gr.) Þæt heo domes dæᵹes dyn ᵹehyre. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 117 Þo com a dine of heuene. c 1205 Lay. 11574 Þer wes swiðe muchel dune Þeines þer dremden. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3467 Smoke upreked and munt quaked..Ai was moses one in ðis dine. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7427 Als wode men dose..and makes gret dyn. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxi. 65 The erthe quook..And dede men for þat deon comen oute of deope graues. c 1400 Destr. Troy 274 Sone he dressit to his dede & no dyn made. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 281 To vincust thame with litill sturt or dyn. 1589 R. Harvey P. Perc. (1590) 21 A man may stop his eares to hear their dinne. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 371 Ile..make thee rore, That beasts shall tremble at thy dyn. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 521 Dreadful was the din Of hissing through the Hall. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 509 ¶2 The din of squallings, oaths, and cries of beggars. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. iii, Faint, and more faint, its failing din Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn. 1848 Lytton Harold xi. vi, From the hall..came the din of tumultuous wassail. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 1 All the steeples from the Abbey to the Tower sent forth a joyous din. |
b. The subjective impression of a sounding or ringing in the ears.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. i. 3 Pressing the Eare, produceth a dinne. 1787 Cowper Let. 29 Sept., I have a perpetual din in my head and..hear nothing aright. |
▪ II. din, v.
Pa. tense and pple. dinned (dɪnd). Forms: 1 dynnan, dynian, 3 dunen, -ien, denie, dinen, 4 denen, dennen, donen, 4–6 dyn(n, 5 dunnyn, 4– din.
[In I., OE. dynnan, dynian = OS. dunian to give forth a sound, ON. dynja (dundi) to come rumbling down, to gush, pour, MDu. and NRh. dunen, MHG. tünen to roar, rumble, thunder, all:—OTeut. *dunjan, from root of din n. ON. had also duna to thunder, rumble:—OTeut. *dunôjan. In II. app. a new formation from the n.]
I. † 1. intr. (In OE. and ME.) To sound, ring with sound, resound. Obs.
| Beowulf 1538 (Th.) Siðþæt se hearm-scaða to Heorute ateah, dryht-sele dynede. c 1205 Lay. 30410 Þa eorðe gon to dunien. a 1225 St. Marher. (1866) 20 Þa þuhte hit as þah a þunre dunede. a 1300 Cursor M. 1770 (Cott.) Þe erth quok and dind again [v.rr. dinned, dynet, dened]. a 1300 K. Horn 592 Þe fole schok þe brunie Þat al þe curt gan denie. 1375 Barbour Bruce xvi. 131 To schir colyne sic dusche he gave That he dynnyt on his arsoune. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Helm. MS.) 1 b, He uncoupled his houndes and blew his horn, Al the forest dynned of that blast. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. i. 89 So lowd thair wofull bewaling habundis, That all the palice dynnis and resoundis. |
† b. Of persons: To make a loud noise; to roar.
| c 1450 Golagros & Gaw. vii, Than dynnyt the duergh, in angir and yre, With raris, quhil the rude hall reirdit agane. |
II. 2. trans. To assail with din or wearying vociferation.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., Why should the ears of all the neighborhood be dinn'd..with the Cackle? 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 85, I want not to have my ears dinned by him and his dotards. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. 377 With never-ceasing words On this and that side is the hero dinned. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xix. 265 The deafening causeway that had dinned our ears for days past. |
3. To make to resound; to utter continuously so as to deafen or weary, to repeat ad nauseam; esp. in phr. to din (something) into (some one's) ears.
| 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 32 This hath often been dinned in my ears. 1830 Scott Demonol. vii. 218 Horrors which were dinned into their ears all day. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 272 My own and other people's cares Are dinned incessant in my ears. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy i, The head man had been dinning his instructions into him. 1877 Black Green Past. xxxix. (1878) 315 It was the one word Gazette that kept dinning itself into his ears. |
4. intr. To make a din; to resound; to give forth deafening or distressing noise.
| 1794 Wordsw. Guilt & Sorrow xlvi, The bag-pipe dinning on the midnight moor. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 63 His wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness. 1831 J. Wilson Unimore vi. 13 Steep water-falls, for ever musical, Keep dinning on. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 228, I am perplexed when I hear the voices of Thrasymachus and myriads of others dinning in my ears. |
▪ III. din
dial. form of dun a.