What does crined mean?
Crined is a specialized English adjective meaning 'having hair' or, more precisely, 'having hair or a mane of a specified kind'. Today it survives almost exclusively in the technical vocabulary of heraldry, where it describes the coloring of a beast's hair or mane when this differs from the rest of the body — for example, a golden lion 'crined gules' bears a red mane. Outside the armorial world the word is archaic, appearing chiefly in older descriptive writing about animals or plants covered with hair-like growths. It derives from the Latin crinis, meaning hair, which also gives us scientific terms such as crinoid, the name for sea lilies whose feathery arms suggested flowing locks. Because crined belongs to a narrow professional idiom, most readers will meet it only in coats of arms or historical texts, but within heraldry it remains a precise and living term of art, valued for the economy and tradition it brings to the formal description of arms.
(Heraldry) Having hair, mane, or similar growth of a specified tincture, typically one differing from the color of the animal's body.
"The supporters are two horses sable, crined and hoofed or."
(Archaic) Covered or furnished with hair, especially hair of a stated character.
"A moth whose thorax was thickly crined with tawny hairs."
In heraldry you don't say a lion has a red mane — you say it's 'crined gules', a word that has survived centuries of heraldic blazon straight out of Latin.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crined
Crined comes from the Latin crinis, meaning 'hair', entering English through Old French crine. The word was adopted into the language of heraldry, where it serves to specify the tincture of a beast's hair or mane in a blazon. Its Latin root also underlies scientific vocabulary such as crinoid and crinite, reflecting the same image of hair-like structures.
Related word forms
How crined is actually used
Crined is rare outside heraldry, where it remains part of the formal language of blazon alongside related terms such as 'armed' and 'unguled'. In general English it survives only in archaic or specialist contexts; modern writers describing hairiness would use words like 'hairy' or 'maned'.
Easily confused with crined
Brined means preserved or soaked in brine (salt water), whereas crined relates to hair or a mane.
Cringed is the past tense of the verb 'cringe', meaning to shrink back in fear or embarrassment, while crined is an adjective describing something as having hair.