tine

noun

1. A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb.

   “The tines of the fork were quite evidently of iron or steel, the girl did not know which, while the handle and the spoon were of the same material as the smaller vessels.”

   “Sitting at the table one day, I held the fork in my left hand and pierced a piece of fried chicken. I put the knife through the second tine, as we had been strictly taught, and began to saw against the bone.”

2. A small branch, especially on an antler or horn.

   ““I answer not the challenge of my prisoner,” said Front-de-Bœuf; “nor shalt thou, Maurice de Bracy.—Giles,” he continued, “hang the franklin’s glove upon the tine of yonder branched antlers:[…]”

   ““By my faith, sirs,” he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his escort, “unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey.”

3. (dialectal)A wild vetch or tare.
4. (obsolete)Trouble; distress; teen.

   “As wither'd Weed through cruel Winter's Tine”

   “And now has brave Sir Thynnè, Escaped all sorrow and tine; Now sleeps she sweet full many a sleep, On brave Sir Thynnè's arm.”

adj

1. small, diminutive

verb

1. (obsolete)To kindle; to set on fire.

   “Coals of contention and hot vengeance tin'd.”

   “The Air attrite to Fire, as late the Clouds / Juſtling or puſht with Winds rude in thir ſhock / Tine the ſlant Lightning, […]”

   “The priest with holy hands was seen to tine / The cloven wood, and pour the ruddy wine.”

2. (obsolete)To rage; to smart.

   “Ne was there salve, ne was there medicine, / That mote recure their wounds; so inly they did tine.”

3. (archaic)To shut in, or enclose.

   “When I was then surrounded on every side by the fiends, and tined about by the blindness of the darkness, then hove I my eyes up and looked hither and yond, whether any help were to come to me, that I might be rescued; […]”

   ““Terrible trying,” said Oak. “I’ve been wet through twice a-day, either in snow or rain, this last fortnight. Cainy and I haven’t tined our eyes to-night.””

name

1. A surname.