rein

• IPA^(key): /ɹeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: rain, reign

From Middle English rein, reyne, borrowed from Anglo-Norman reyne, resne, from Early Medieval Latin retina, ultimately from Classical Latin retineō (“hold back”), from re- + teneō (“keep, hold”). Compare modern French rêne.

Displaced native Old English ġewealdleþer (literally “control leather”).

rein (plural reins)

1. A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, animal or young child.
2. (figurative) An instrument or means of curbing, restraining, or governing.

   The government is attempting to keep a rein on rising prices.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Let their eyes rove without rein.

rein (third-person singular simple present reins, present participle reining, simple past and past participle reined)

1. (transitive) To direct or stop a horse by using reins.
   • [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volumes (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:

     He mounts and reins his horse.

     The spelling has been modernized.

2. (transitive) To restrain; to control; to check.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Being once chafed, he cannot / Be reined again to temperance.

   • 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

     After an interval that he judged to have lasted twenty minutes, the bed began to shake with poorly reined sobs.

3. (intransitive) To obey directions given with the reins.
   • 2011, Marie Claire Peck, Rocking Horse Ranch, page 40:

     She worked each horse at a walk, trot, and then a canter. The horses reined well and executed stops quickly.

• rein in

From Anglo-Norman reines, Middle French reins, and their source, Latin rēnēs. Doublet of ren.

rein (plural reins)

1. (now rare, archaic, chiefly in plural) A kidney.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     a man subject to these like imaginations […] hath often the stone imaginarily, before he have it in his reines […].

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Lamentations 3:13:

     He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

2. The inward impulses; the affections and passions, formerly supposed to be located in the area of the kidneys.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:16:

     My reins rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 2:23:

     I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts.

• Erin, N.Ire., Rine, in re, rine

rein

1. (Timau) rain

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien.

From Middle Dutch reine, from Old Dutch reini, from Proto-West Germanic *hrainī, from Proto-Germanic *hrainiz.

• IPA^(key): /rɛi̯n/

• Audio

  (file)

rein (comparative reiner, superlative reinst)

1. (formal) clean, spotless
2. (Netherlands) pure, sheer

• onrein

• Negerhollands: rein

• erin, nier

rein

1. instructive plural of reki

• Erin, erin

Inherited from Middle French rein, from Old French rein, from the plural reins, from Latin rēnes < rēn, from Proto-Italic *hrēn, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰren- (“an internal part of the body”).

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ̃/

• audio

  (file)

rein m (plural reins)

1. (anatomy) kidney
2. (in the plural) small of the back, waist

• rénal
• rognon

• “rein”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• nier, rien

• IPA^(key): /ʁaɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪ̯n
• Homophone: Rhein

From Middle High German reine, from Old High German reini, from Proto-West Germanic *hrainī, from Proto-Germanic *hrainiz, from Proto-Indo-European *króy-n-is, from *krey- (“divide, sift”). Cognate with Old Saxon hreni, (Low German ren), Dutch rein, Old Norse hreinn (Swedish ren), Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “separate, decide, judge”), Old Irish criathar, English riddle (“sieve”).

rein (strong nominative masculine singular reiner, comparative reiner, superlative am reinsten)

1. pure, clear, plain
   • 2010, Der Spiegel‎, number 24/2010, page 131:

     Natürlich ist eine Weltmeisterschaft kein reines Sportevent mehr, sie ist sicher auch ein bisschen Welt- und Entwicklungspolitik.

     Of course, a world championship is no longer a pure sports event, it surely is also a bit of world and development politics.

rein

1. purely

   Unsere Beziehung ist rein platonisch.

   Our relationship is purely platonic.

• reinigen

Contraction of herein (“in here”), or hinein (“in there”).

• rin

rein

1. (colloquial) inside, in here

   Er kommt jetzt rein. ― He's coming inside now.

2. (colloquial) inside, in there

   Er geht rein zu den andern. ― He's going inside to the other people.

The standard language distinguishes the meanings of hinein (“in there: away from the speaker”) and herein (“in here: towards the speaker”). Rein is used for both meanings.

• herein
• hinein

• hinaus
• heraus
• raus

• “rein” in Duden online
• “rein” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “rein”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

From Old Norse rein, reina, from Proto-Germanic *rainō. Cognate with English rean, German Rain.

• IPA^(key): /ˈreiːn/
• Rhymes: -eiːn

rein f (genitive singular reinar, nominative plural reinar)

1. strip (of land)

• aðrein
• akrein
• frárein

From Old Irish rígan (“queen”), from Proto-Celtic *rīganī. Cognate to Irish ríon, Scottish Gaelic rìghinn, rìbhinn, Welsh rhiain.

• IPA^(key): /reːn/

rein f (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. queen, regina

   Synonym: benrein

• benrein

From Old French rein.

rein m (plural reins)

1. (anatomy) kidney

• French: rein

From Old French rein, reins, from Latin rēn, rēnes.

rein m (plural reins)

1. (Jersey, anatomy) kidney

• rîngnon

• IPA^(key): /rejn/, [ɾæɪ̯n]
• Homophone: regn

From Old Norse hreinn.

• ren

rein (neuter singular reint, definite singular and plural reine, comparative reinere, indefinite superlative reinest, definite superlative reineste)

1. clean
2. pure

From Old Norse hreinn.

rein m (definite singular reinen, indefinite plural reiner, definite plural reinene)

1. a reindeer

• reinsdyr

• reinkalv

• “rein” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /rɛɪːn/

From Old Norse hreinn.

rein (neuter singular reint, definite singular and plural reine, comparative reinare, indefinite superlative reinast, definite superlative reinaste)

1. clean
2. pure

From Old Norse hreinn.

rein m (definite singular reinen, indefinite plural reinar, definite plural reinane)

1. a reindeer, Rangifer tarandus
   • 1855, Ivar Aasen, Ervingen:

     […] renna i Kapp med Reinen, um Raasi er tung og vaat: Dat maa ein Galning vera, som so vil fara aat.

     To race against the reindeer, if the road is soggy and wet: It must be a madman who wants to act like that.

• reinsdyr

• reinkalv
• reinsbukk

• “rein” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

First attested in the plural as reins, from Latin rēnes, plural of the almost unused rēn.

• rain

rein oblique singular, m (oblique plural reinz, nominative singular reinz, nominative plural rein)

1. (anatomy) kidney
2. (in the plural, reins) small of the back, lower back

• Middle French: rein
  • French: rein
• Norman: rein
• Walloon: rino, rno, rin
• → English: rein

See rien

rein oblique singular, f (oblique plural reinz, nominative singular rein, nominative plural reinz)

1. Alternative form of rien

rein

1. clean
2. pure, immaculate
3. chaste

• IPA^(key): [ɾeˈin]

rein (nominative plural reins)

1. rain

• lömib

From Old Frisian [Term?], from Proto-West Germanic *regn, from Proto-Germanic *regną.

• (Clay) IPA^(key): /rai̯n/
• (Wood) IPA^(key): /rɛi̯n/

rein c (no plural, diminutive reintsje)

1. rain

• reinbôge

• “rein (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011