chine

1. The top of a ridge.
2. The spine of an animal.
3. A piece of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.
4. A sharp angle in the cross section of a hull.
5. A hollowed or bevelled channel in the waterway of a ship's deck.
6. The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.
7. The back of the blade on a scythe.

1. To cut through the backbone of; to cut into chine pieces.
2. To chamfer the ends of a stave and form the chine.

noun

(Southern England) A steep-sided ravine leading from the top of a cliff down to the sea.

1. To crack, split, fissure, break.

   A drought had caused the earth to chine and cranny.