bin

1 of 4

noun (1)

ˈbin 

plural bins

1

: a box, frame, crib, or enclosed place used for storage

2

chiefly British : a can for trash or garbage : dustbin

The woman retreated to a desk, dropping the leaflets in the bin as though she couldn't bear to hold them anymore.

—Denise Mina

bin

2 of 4

verb

binned; binning

transitive verb

: to put into a bin

BIN

3 of 4

noun (2)

ˈbin 

linguistics

: the verb form been used with spoken emphasis in African American English to indicate that something (such as an event or state) happened or existed in the remote past or that it began in the remote past and is still ongoing : stressed bin

BIN, which is stressed, situates an eventuality or some part of it in the remote past. It has been shown that developing AAL-speaking children also produce BIN in spontaneous speech and interpret it as a marker that refers to the distant past.

—Lisa Green and Tracy Conner

Note: BIN frequently precedes perfect (see perfect entry 1 sense 5) verb forms, as well as progressive (see progressive entry 1 sense 7) verb forms ending in -ing. It can also precede the African American English feature perfective done, additional predicates (such as nouns, adjectives, and prepositional phrases), and, in certain contexts, adverbial phrases.

bin-

4 of 4

prefix

: bi- entry 1

binaural

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• box
• caddy
• case
• casket
• chest
• locker
• trunk

Examples of bin in a Sentence

Noun (1)

Put the old newspapers in the recycling bin.

a storage bin for hats and gloves

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

And an image of a woman named Linda Jackson washing her hair in a plastic bin on the Navajo Nation, the striking mountains of Monument Valley piercing the background, was how Elliot Ross shed light on what life is like in America’s water inequality capital. —Time Photo Department, TIME, 20 Dec. 2024

Best Storage Deals Organize the rooms in your house with storage cabinets, nesting baskets, and bins. —Ali Faccenda, People.com, 5 Dec. 2024

Verb

Daniel makes the executive decision to bin it and go ahead with the shoot, cranking the gas up to 11. —Jack King, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2024

Similarly, the previous center stack has been binned in favor of a sleeker curved screen that combines the gauge cluster and infotainment and below is a selection of buttons used to change the climate settings. —Matthew MacConnell, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English binn, from Old English

Prefix

Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin bini two by two; akin to Old English twinn twofold — more at twin

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1839, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1975, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing bin

• bin liner
• litter bin
• loony bin
• rubbish bin
• waste bin
• wheelie bin

Kids Definition

bin

noun

ˈbin

: a box, frame, or enclosed place for storage