Word.ws English Dictionary

rein

/ɹeɪn/

rein noun: a strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, other animal or young child.

Noun (1)

rein (plural reins)

  1. A strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, other animal or young child.
  2. (figuratively) An instrument or means of curbing, restraining, or governing.
    • The government is attempting to keep a rein on rising prices.
    • Let their eyes rove without rein.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

Verb

rein (third-person singular simple present reins, present participle reining, simple past and past participle reined)

  1. (transitive) To direct or stop a horse by using reins.
    • He mounts and reins his horse.[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer...
  2. (transitive) To restrain; to control; to check.
    • Being once chafed, he cannot / Be reined again to temperance.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • After an interval that he judged to have lasted twenty minutes, the bed began to shake with poorly reined sobs.2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
  3. (intransitive) To obey directions given with the reins.
    • She worked each horse at a walk, trot, and then a canter. The horses reined well and executed stops quickly.2011, Marie Claire Peck, Rocking Horse Ranch, page 40

Noun (2)

rein (plural reins)

  1. (archaic, plural) A kidney.
    • a man subject to these like imaginations[…]hath often the stone imaginarily, before he have it in his reines[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    • He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Lamentations 3:13
  2. The inward impulses; the affections and passions, formerly supposed to be located in the area of the kidneys.
    • My reins rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:16
    • I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 2:23

Noun (3) capitalized: REIN

REIN (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of repetitive electrical impulse noise.

Proper noun capitalized: Rein

Rein (plural Reins)

  1. A surname from German.

rein meaning in Bengali, Tagalog, Arabic and Persian

rein in Bengali

strap or rope
লাগাম lagam

rein in Tagalog

strap or rope
renda
to direct or stop a horse using reins
rumenda, rendahan

rein in Arabic

strap or rope
زِمَام zimām, عِنَان ʕinān

rein in Persian

strap or rope
افسار afsâr, دوال davâl, پالهنگ pâlhang
More languagesFewer languages
rein in Thai
บังเหียน bang-hǐian
rein in Vietnamese
dây cương

Examples of rein in a sentence

  • The government has no other option than to rein in public spending.
  • He was given free rein to do whatever he wanted.
  • Trump suggested that he has given the tech billionaire free rein and appeared blase about the details.

All 31 example sentences with rein

Forms of rein

Noun
pluralreins
Verb
third-person singular presentreins
present participlereining
past participlereined
pastreined
Proper noun
pluralReins

Plural of rein: reins

Origin of rein

From Middle English rein, reyne, from Anglo-Norman reyne, resne, from Early Medieval Latin retina, ultimately from Classical Latin retineō (“hold back”), from re- + teneō (“keep, hold”). Compare modern French rêne. Displaced native Old English brīdel (“bridle, rein”), Old English wealdleþer, ġewealdleþer (“rein, bridle”, literally “control strap”), Old English sāl (“cord, rein”), Old English tiġel (“rein”), and Old English lāttēh, lāttēh (“leash, rein”).

From Anglo-Norman reines, Middle French reins, and their source, Latin rēnēs. Doublet of ren.

* As a German surname, borrowed from German Rein, comparable to the first element of several surnames such as Reinhardt, Reinbold, etc., from Proto-Germanic *raginą. * As an English surname, variant of Rain. Possibly also a habitational surname related to Rhine.

Words formed from rein

Phrases with rein

Words that rhyme with rein

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rein

What does rein mean?
Rein means a strap or rope attached to a bridle or bit, used to control a horse, other animal or young child.
What is rein in Bengali?
Rein in Bengali is লাগাম (lagam). See Rein meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is rein?
Rein can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rein?
Rein is pronounced /ɹeɪn/.
What is the plural of rein?
The plural of rein is reins.

Words near rein in the dictionary

  1. reimproves
  2. reimproving
  3. reimputation
  4. reimputations
  5. reims
  6. rein
  7. rein holder
  8. rein holders
  9. rein hook
  10. rein hooks
  11. rein in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rein (page history and authors); REIN (page history and authors); Rein (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rein.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rein.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rein. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.