Forms: 4–7 loyne, 6–7 loine, 6–8 loyn, (5 lony, 6 loigne, 9 dial. line), 7– loin. See also LUNYIE. [ad. OF. loigne, logne, dialectal variant of longe (mod.F. longe loin of veal) = Sp. lonja piece of ham:—med.L. *lumbea, fem. of *lumbeus adj., belonging to the loin, f. L. lumbus loin:—WAryan *londhwo-: see LEND sb.1]
1. a. In the living body. Chiefly pl. The part or parts of a human being or quadruped, situated on both sides of the vertebral column, between the false ribs and the hip-bone.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xliii. (1495), 160. The place called the loynes is in the sydes of the joyntes of the rydge.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., F iij b. The loynes are musculous flesshes lyeng in the sydes of the spondyles of the backe.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde (1552), 15 b. From the ryght syde … descendeth a braunche … downe towardes the right loynes.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxiv. (Arb.), 290. An high paire of silke netherstocks that couered all his buttockes and loignes.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iv. 9. Horses are tide by the heads,… Monkies, by th’ loynes, and Men by th’ legs.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 282. The middle pair Girt like a Starrie Zone his waste, and round Skirted his loines and thighes with downie Gold.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Dispens., xiv. (1734), 269. Nothing will contribute more to strengthen a Horses Shoulders or Loyns.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 45. But restless was the chair; the back erect Distressed the weary loins, that felt no ease.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 525. A sense of heat, weight, and dull pain in the loins.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 135. Good hand-rubbing … should be used … about the loins.
b. In an animal used for food; chiefly, the joint of meat that includes the vertebræ of the loins.
c. 1302. Pol. Songs (Camden), 191. We shule flo the Conyng, ant make roste is loyne.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 312/2. Loyne of flesche (S. lony), lumbus, elumbus.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xii. 232. Alle a hare bot the lonys.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C iij b. Then the loynes of the hare loke ye not forgete.
1555. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 228. Item, a loyne of vele,… xvjd.
1598. Epulario, B j. The Loine [of a Bucke] may be rosted, and the legs baked.
1680. Earl Dorset, On C’tess Dorchester, 12. So have I seen in Larder dark Of Veal a lucid Loin,… At once both stink and shine.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 4 April. I dined … at home on a loin of mutton and half a pint of wine.
1727. W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 30. Loyn, of Veal.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. p. xxi. The Brighton butchers sold … loins of mutton at 6d. per lb.
1862. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 101. The cookery … would suit you:—constant loins of roast mutton.
2. Chiefly Biblical and poet. This part of the body, regarded a. as the part of the body that should be covered by clothing and about which the clothes are bound; so, to gird (up) the loins (lit. and fig.), to prepare for strenuous exertion.
1526. Tindale, Matt. iii. 4. This Jhon had his garment off camels heer and a gerdell off a skynne aboute his loynes.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xxxi. 17. She gyrdeth hir loynes with strength.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iii. 10. My face Ile grime with filth, Blanket my loines.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 1096. Some Tree whose broad smooth Leaves together sowd, And girded on our loyns, may cover round Those middle parts.
1742. Collins, Ode Poet. Charac., 21. To gird their blest prophetick loins.
1753. Smart, Hilliad, I. 27. Her loins with patch-work cincture were begirt.
1833. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Loire, 17. It was necessary, therefore, to gird up our loins and walk.
1855. Browning, Statue & Bust. The unlit lamp and the ungirt loin.
1877. Bryant, Odyss., V. 280. And round about her loins Wound a fair golden girdle.
1880. Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Fam., II. v. He was standing like the impersonation of masculine punctuality with loins girded.
b. as the seat of physical strength and of generative power. † Hence occas. used as an equivalent for ‘sire,’ ‘offspring,’ ‘descendants.’ Also fig.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. xxxv. 11. Kynges shall come out of thy loynes.
1577–87. Hooker, Chron. Irel., 134/1. in Holinshed. John earle of Bath, whose ancestors were descended from out of the loines of kings.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 137. This shame deriues it selfe from vnknowne loines.
1611. Bible, Job xl. 16. Loe now, his strength is in his loynes. Ibid., Isa. xlv. 1. I will loose the loines of kings.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, IV. 1541. Impious villaine! to defame the fruit Of thine owne loynes.
1628. Gaule, Pract. Theory (1629), Ep. Ded. And when it shall descend to your Loynes; may you be inuested with the Crowne, which … fadeth not.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 27. By intermarriage with the Lady Iane Grey,… to bring it [the crown] about into his [Northumberland’s] loynes.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 352. A multitude, like which the populous North Pour’d never from her frozen loyns.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 459. What boots it, that from Phœbus Loins I spring.
1786. A. Gib, Sacr. Contempl., II. III. ii. 120. All his natural posterity, as being all in his loins.
1790. Cowper, Receipt Mother’s Pict., 109. My boast is not, that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. I. 255. About a dizzen and a half—the legitimate produce o’ the Eerish couple’s ain fruitfu lines.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 495. I thought, can this be he From Gama’s dwarfish loins?
1880. L. Morris, Ode of Life, 43. The Future lies within thy loins, and all the Days to be To thee Time giveth to beget.
3. attrib. and Comb., as loin-ache, -guard; loin-cloth, a cloth worn round the loins.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1075. This *loin ache is apt to reappear.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geogr. Soc., XXIX. 324. The remainder of the dress is a *loin-cloth of white domestics or of indigo dyed cotton.
1894. Daily News, 1 Aug., 5/5. In cold or rainy weather the cab-horses have waterproof loin-cloths.
1895. Oracle Encycl., I. 180/1. Brayette and *loin-guard to protect the abdomen.
