What does chin mean?
The chin is the small, often pointed prominence at the very bottom of the human face, directly beneath the lips and formed by the forward part of the lower jawbone. It is one of the most familiar words for describing appearance and gesture: people stroke their chins while thinking, lift their chins when proud, and rest their chins on their hands when weary or bored. The word also appears frequently in fixed expressions — most notably 'keep your chin up', an encouragement to stay cheerful in difficulty — and in descriptive terms like 'double chin'. Curiously, a projecting bony chin appears to be a distinctly human feature, and its evolutionary purpose remains debated among scientists. Informally, 'to chin' can mean performing a pull-up high enough that the chin clears the bar. Short, concrete, and richly idiomatic, 'chin' is an essential word for describing both faces and fortitude.
The protruding lowermost part of the face, below the mouth, formed by the front of the lower jawbone.
"She lifted her chin defiantly and stared back at him."
(Informal, chiefly in fitness contexts) To pull oneself upward on a horizontal bar until the chin is level with or above it; to perform chin-ups.
"He can still chin himself twenty times without breaking a sweat."
The verb use is informal and largely confined to gym and athletic contexts, especially American usage.
Regular plural, used when referring to more than one person's chin or in general statements about facial features.
"The portrait artist paid careful attention to the subjects' chins."
Your chin may be uniquely human — no other animal has one quite like it, and scientists still argue about why we evolved it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chin
Chin comes from Old English 'cinn', of Germanic origin, making it one of the oldest words in the language for parts of the body. It has close cognates across the Germanic family, including German 'Kinn' and Dutch 'kin', all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root. The word has remained remarkably stable in form and meaning for over a thousand years, with no significant shift in its sense.
Related word forms
How chin is actually used
A common body-part word in everyday speech and idioms; figurative uses such as 'keep your chin up' convey resilience. As a verb ('to chin'), it belongs mainly to informal fitness contexts.
Easily confused with chin
The shin is the front of the lower leg between knee and ankle, whereas the chin is the lower part of the face.