bin

Etymology 1

From Middle English binne, from Old English binne (“crib, manger”), from Proto-West Germanic *binnu, *binnā, from Gaulish benna (“four-wheeled cart; caisson”) (compare Old Irish buinne, Welsh benn (“cart”), Old Breton benn (“caisson”)).

noun

1. A box, frame, crib, or enclosed place, used as a storage container.
   a corn bin
   a wine bin
   a coal bin
2. A container for rubbish or waste.
   a rubbish bin
   a wastepaper bin
   an ashes bin
   British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far. 2013-08-10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
3. (statistics) Any of the discrete intervals in a histogram, etc
4. Any of the fixed-size chunks into which airspace is divided for the purposes of radar.
5. (MLE, slang, uncommon) Jail or prison.
   Free up my G's locked in the bin Jail house comin' like subs one comes out then one goes in 2018-10-22, “Subs”, Slipz of Hoxton (lyrics)
6. (slang) Short for loony bin (“lunatic asylum”).
   At the moment, and in "an emergency", you or I could be sent to the bin, willy-nilly, on the say-so of a single doctor (who may never have seen us before, and need have no particular experience of mental illness), so long as the application is supported by one of our relatives, or by a "social worker". 1973, New Scientist, volume 58, number 852, page 822

verb

1. (chiefly Britain, informal) To dispose of (something) by putting it into a bin, or as if putting it into a bin.
   He put the bank statement in the shoebox marked "Bank Statements" and binned the rest. 2008, Tom Holt, Falling Sideways, Orbit books,, page 28
2. (Britain, informal) To throw away, reject, give up.
   This splendid eloquence was promptly binned by the pope, […] 2002, Christopher Harvie, Scotland: A Short History, Oxford University Press, page 59
   The CC [Co-ordinating Centre] had long since binned the idea of catching the regular shuttle service, […] 2005, Ian Oliver, War and peace in the Balkans: the diplomacy of conflict in the former Yugoslavia, I.B. Tauris, page 238
   NR also wants more effort made to bin out-of-date 1970s technology, but only replacing it with equipment that meets customer needs, rather than high-tech kit just for the sake of it. September 22 2021, Howard Johnston, “NR: stop firefighting and plan for long-term progress”, in RAIL, number 940, page 11
3. (statistics) To convert continuous data into discrete groups.
4. (transitive) To place into a bin for storage.
   to bin wine

Etymology 2

From Arabic بِن (bin, “son”).

noun

1. (in Arabic names) son of; equivalent to Hebrew בן (ben).

Etymology 3

Contraction of been

verb

1. (obsolete, dialectal and text messaging) Alternative form of been
   Many of the lupus piscis I have seen, and have bin informed by the king's fishmonger they are taken on our coast […] 1669, Christopher Merrett, letter to Thomas Browne

Etymology 4

Clipping of binary.

noun

1. (computing) Clipping of binary.