WHIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does whin mean? 

• WHIN (noun)
  The noun WHIN has 3 senses:

1. very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe

2. small Eurasian shrub having clusters of yellow flowers that yield a dye; common as a weed in Britain and the United States; sometimes grown as an ornamental

3. any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt)

  Familiarity information: WHIN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

furze; gorse; Irish gorse; Ulex europaeus; whin

Hypernyms ("whin" is a kind of...):

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

Holonyms ("whin" is a member of...):

genus Ulex; Ulex (genus of Eurasian spiny shrubs: gorse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Small Eurasian shrub having clusters of yellow flowers that yield a dye; common as a weed in Britain and the United States; sometimes grown as an ornamental

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

dyer's-broom; dyer's greenweed; dyeweed; Genista tinctoria; greenweed; whin; woadwaxen; woodwaxen

Hypernyms ("whin" is a kind of...):

broom (any of various shrubs of the genera Cytisus or Genista or Spartium having long slender branches and racemes of yellow flowers)

Holonyms ("whin" is a member of...):

Genista; genus Genista (chiefly deciduous shrubs or small trees of Mediterranean area and western Asia: broom)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

whin; whinstone

Hypernyms ("whin" is a kind of...):

rock; stone (a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter)