▪ I. rhine1 s.w. dial.
(riːn)
Also 7 royne, 9 rhyne, rhoyne; β. rheen, rhene, rhein.
[app. repr. OE. ryne (see rune), but the spelling is difficult to account for; cf. reen.]
A large open ditch or drain.
| 1698–9 Act 10 Will. III, c. 26 The present Roynes and Water Courses are not sufficient to Drain the same [sc. Sedgemoor]. 1714 J. Fortescue-Aland Note in Fortescue's Abs. & Lim. Mon. 104 In Somersetshire they call the Streams and Rivulets between their Moors, which on Floods rise high, Rhines to this Day. 1800 Phil. Trans. XC. 548 So much..is this flat cut up with rhynes and ditches, that [etc.]. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 608 But between them and the enemy lay three broad rhines filled with water and soft mud. 1886 Weston-super-Mare Gaz. 27 Nov., One of the footpaths in the parish of Brent Knoll was reported to have fallen into the rhyne. |
| β 1801 W. Coxe Hist. Tour Monm. I. 72 The water..runs in perpetual streams called rheens. 1878 Smiles G. Moore vii. 112 He had a run of about an hour and a quarter during which we had to cross about 20 rheins, or water jumps. 1891 Field 7 Mar. 332/3 The country intersected with rhenes, most of which take some doing. |
▪ II. rhine2
(raɪn)
Also 7–9 rine, 8 ryne, 9 rhyne.
[orig. rine hemp, ad. G. reinhanf, lit. ‘clean hemp’. The form was influenced by association with the river Rhine; cf. G. Rheinhanf.]
The name of a fine quality of Russian hemp. Usually Riga rhine (hemp).
| 1641 S. Smith Herring-Bvsse Trade 13 The best Rine and Rusband are these, Hempe brought in by the Eastland Merchants from the parts of Leiffeland and Prussia. 1765 Museum Rust. IV. xxiii. 108, I have seen very good hemp, the growth of that country [sc. North America], not inferior to the best Riga ryne. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship 94 Bolt Rope should be well made, of fine yarn, spun from the best Riga rhine hemp well topt. 1812 Rhyne [see outshot ppl. a. 3]. 1873 Beeton's Dict. Comm., Rine-Hemp. |
▪ III. rhine
variant of rind, hoar-frost.