kin

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Race; family; breed; kind.

   “the starfish and its kin the sea urchin”

2. (collective, countable, uncountable)Persons of the same race or family; kindred.

   “c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers You are of kin, and so must be a friend to their persons.”

   “Based on the number of teeth ammonites had—nine—it's believed that their closest living kin are octopuses.”

3. (countable, uncountable)One or more relatives, such as siblings or cousins, taken collectively.

   “Among those who derive information related to work from personal contacts, nonkins, rather than kins, constitute the most important sources even for women.”

4. (countable, uncountable)Relationship; same-bloodedness or affinity; near connection or alliance, as of those having common descent.

   “Such sensations, however, were too near a kin to resentment to be long guiding Fanny's soliloquies.”

5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of qin (“Chinese string instrument”).

   “Originally they had only two cither-like instruments, which had flat sound-boxes without fingerboards, over which were strung rather a large number (25) of strings of twisted silk — the kin and tsche.”

   “If a musician were going to give a lecture upon the mathematical part of his art, he would find a very elegant substitute for the monochord in the Chinese kin.”

6. (slang)A fictional or non-fictional being whom one spiritually connects to.
7. (slang)Someone who identifies as a certain fictional character.
8. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of k'in.
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquial, uncountable)Clipping of kinesiology.

adj

1. (not-comparable, uncommon)Related by blood or marriage, akin. (It is more common to form sentences using the noun instead.)

   “It turns out my back-fence neighbor is kin to one of my co-workers.”

   “... and our feeling together had made us forget what-ever there'd been between us to forget about. And I ain't ever in my life felt so kin to folks. I felt kinner than I knew I was. That night, tired as I was, I walked[…]”

   “How serenely Earth keeps on her business! […] Yielding powers to man's hand / While he burrows in her sand, / […] How kin is she to man, who sips / Nourishment with boasting lips, / Detached, but inalienably bound /To be suckled[…]”

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:kin.”

verb

1. (slang, transitive)To identify with; as in spiritually connect to a fictional or non-fictional being.
2. (alt-of, pronunciation-spelling)Pronunciation spelling of can.

   “[Owl:] Oh I ain't stealin' this dime... I just took it for safe-keepin'. [Turtle:] Ain't much you kin do with it—'cept make a phone call.”

name

1. (alt-of, alternative, obsolete)Alternative form of Jin.
2. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of Kinshasa.