Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of the body of a human or quadruped on either side of the backbone and between the ribs and hips.
  • noun One of several cuts of meat, such as tenderloin, taken from this part of an animal's body, typically including the vertebrae of the segment from which it is taken.
  • noun The region of the hips, groin, and lower abdomen.
  • noun The reproductive organs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The part of an animal which lies between the lowest of the false ribs on each side and the upper part of the ilium or haunchbone; one of the lateral parts of the lumbar region: commonly used in the plural (often figuratively, with reference to this part of the body being the seat of the generative faculty and a symbol of strength), except as the name of a piece of meat from the lumbar region of an animal, as a loin of veal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That part of a human being or quadruped, which extends on either side of the spinal column between the hip bone and the false ribs. In human beings the loins are also called the reins. See Illust. of beef.
  • noun A cut of meat taken from this part of a food animal, as from cattle or hogs.
  • noun The pubic area; the genitalia, especially in women.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The part of the body (of humans and quadrupeds) at each side of the backbone, between the ribs and hips
  • noun Any of several cuts of meat taken from this part of an animal

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun either side of the backbone between the hipbone and the ribs in humans as well as quadrupeds
  • noun a cut of meat taken from the side and back of an animal between the ribs and the rump

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English loine, from Old French loigne, from Vulgar Latin *lumbea (carō), loin (meat), feminine of *lumbeus, of the loin, from Latin lumbus, loin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English loyne, from Old French loigne, assumedly from Late Latin root *lumbea, from Latin lumbus ("loin"), from Proto-Germanic *landwīn, *landwiō (“waist, loins”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendhw- (“kidney, waist”). Cognate with Old English lendenu, Dutch lende, German Lende, Swedish länd ("haunch, loin"), Proto-Slavic *lędvьja (Russian лядвея). See also lende.

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Examples

  • • For the leanest cut, look for the word loin, i.e., tenderloin, loin chops, loin roasts.

    The Small Change Diet Keri Gans 2011

  • • For the leanest cut, look for the word loin, i.e., tenderloin, loin chops, loin roasts.

    The Small Change Diet Keri Gans 2011

  • They wear no clothing except what they call loin-cloth or breach-cloth, and when they, go on the war-path, just as when they went to attack Fort Pitt, they are completely naked.

    Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear Theresa Fulford Delaney 1881

  • Blackbirders though descended from old New York Knickerbocker stock, surged in, clad in loin-cloth, undershirt, two belted revolvers and a sheath - knife, he was stopped at the beach.

    A GOBOTO NIGHT 2010

  • Some may recall the breathless excitement generated by the esteemed journal National Geographic when its 1971 cover story of the "Stone Age" Tasaday hit the presses - and the subsequent red faces of all concerned when the "tribe" turned out to be some local villagers gallavanting in loin cloths.

    Society's fascination with the wild outsider 2008

  • Some may recall the breathless excitement generated by the esteemed journal National Geographic when its 1971 cover story of the "Stone Age" Tasaday hit the presses - and the subsequent red faces of all concerned when the "tribe" turned out to be some local villagers gallavanting in loin cloths.

    Society's fascination with the wild outsider 2008

  • I can't do, (ahem, make that not ALLOWED) anything else until the loin is prepared for supper.

    Hunting and the Work Place 2007

  • TWIN Zimbabwean brothers were charged with indecent exposure after strolling up to an up-market Harare shopping mall wearing only traditional goatskin loin cloths, a state-run newspaper reported Sunday.

    Brothers Display Pride in Ancestry, Among Other Things 2006

  • So, one meerkat-specialty lasagna, a large quantity of beef vegetable soup are setting in the freezer, I test-drove a pasta fry-up recipe for dinner (rigatoni with garlic-infused olive oil, fresh minced garlic and chipolte), and a pork loin is marinating in port wine for dinner tomorrow night.

    kitchen day suricattus 2003

  • In any Far Eastern town there are rickshaw pullers by the hundred, black wretches weighing eight stone, clad in loin-cloths.

    Down and Out in Paris and London 1933

Comments

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  • I can't find a definition to back me up, but, for swordfish, tuna, some shark, and other large food fish such as opah, a loin refers to one of the four long, unbroken muscles that the fish uses for propulsion and from which steaks can be cut. These are quadrants, back/belly/left/right, such that the back and belly loin together, from a given side, forms what would be called the fillet in a smaller fish.

    This google image search may shed some light on the subject.

    January 22, 2013

  • The OED has something about how it's the "technical term for 'to carve' (a sole)."

    January 22, 2013

  • that's weird, because cuts of sole are usually called fillets...same with most flatfish (except Alaskan halibut fillet, which is sometimes thick enough to be called loin, at least toward the head—but at that point it's little more than a marketing term. Fishmongers will sometimes offer "'loin cut' halibut steaks"). I have heard the construction loin out, as in "get those tombo loined out."

    January 22, 2013