Loin

//lɔɪn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The part of the body (of humans and quadrupeds) at each side of the backbone, between the ribs and hips.

    "Holonym: side"

  2. 2
    Misspelling of lion. alt-of, misspelling
  3. 3
    either side of the backbone between the hipbone and the ribs in humans as well as quadrupeds wordnet
  4. 4
    Any of several cuts of meat taken from this part of an animal.
  5. 5
    a cut of meat taken from the side and back of an animal between the ribs and the rump wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
lumbusbackblade roastbreastbrisketchateaubriand

Example

More examples

"He bought the pre-cut pork loin."

Etymology

From Middle English loyne, from Old French loigne, from Vulgar Latin *lumbea, from Latin lumbus, of uncertain origin, possibly from Oscan-Umbrian *londwo- or Proto-Germanic *lundwuz, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“kidney, waist”). Cognate with Modern English lend (“loin”), Dutch lende, German Lende, Swedish länd (“haunch, loin”), Danish lænd, Proto-Slavic *lędvьje (Russian ля́двея (ljádveja)). Doublet of lend.

Related phrases

fruit of one's loinsgird up one's loinsline-loin mergerloin-girdingpork loinshort loinslack loinstrip lointenderloin steaktop loin

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.