What does bine mean?
A bine is the slender, flexible stem of a twining climbing plant — most familiarly the hop, whose bines are the raw material of beer brewing. What distinguishes a bine from a vine is the method of climbing: instead of sending out tendrils or suckers to grip a support, a bine climbs by wrapping its entire stem in a tight spiral around poles, strings, or other upright structures. The word is largely confined to botanical writing and to hop-growing regions such as Kent, where fields of bines strung on overhead wire are a distinctive sight. For most speakers, vine serves as the everyday equivalent, though it is not strictly accurate for twining plants. Bine is therefore a precise, specialist term: useful when describing hops, bindweed, or similar climbers, and carrying a pleasantly rural, agricultural connotation rooted in centuries of English farming vocabulary.
nounA bine is the flexible climbing stem of a twining or climbing plant, especially the hop plant. Unlike a tendril-bearing vine, a bine climbs by winding its whole stem spirally around a support.
- The flexible twining stem of a climbing plant, especially of the hop, which coils spirally around supports rather than using tendrils.
"The hops were trained up strings so that each bine could spiral skyward."
"By midsummer the hop bines had wound themselves twenty feet up the garden strings."
"Each bine must be trained by hand onto fresh coir yarn at the start of the season."
Regular plural; commonly used when discussing hop fields or multiple climbing stems.
"The pickers moved down the rows, stripping the bines of their cones."
Hops don't climb like grapes do — their stems literally twist themselves upward, which is why beer growers call them bines, not vines.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bine
Bine derives from an Old English root related to binding, reflecting the way these stems wind and twist around their supports; it is ultimately connected to the verb 'to bind'. The word has been used since Middle English times for twisting climbing stems, and it remains especially associated with hop cultivation in southern England.
How bine is actually used
Bine is a somewhat technical or regional term, used chiefly by botanists and in hop-growing districts (notably Kent and other English brewing regions). In everyday speech, vine is far more common, though technically imprecise for plants like hops that climb by twining rather than by tendrils.
Easily confused with bine
A vine climbs using tendrils or suckers, whereas a bine climbs by twining its entire stem around a support.
Bind is a verb meaning to tie or fasten, while bine is a noun naming the twisting stem itself.