To begin (which see).[In Middle English the preterit of this verb (gan, gon, can, con, etc.) was much used with a following infinitive, with or without to, as having, besides its regular inceptive meaning ‘began to,’ a merely preterit force, being equivalent to the simple preterit of the second verb: as, he gan go, equivalent to he did go or he went. This auxiliary was supplanted in the fifteenth century by did, though its use, as an archaism, continued much later.Against (a certain time); by: as, I′ ll be there gin five o′ clock.If; suppose.n. I. Contrivance; crafty means; artifice.n. A mechanical contrivance; a machine; an engine.n. An engine of torture.n. A machine used instead of a crane, consisting essentially of three poles from 12 to 15 feet in length, often tapering from the lower extremity to the top, and united at their upper extremities, whence a block and tackle is suspended, the lower extremities being planted in the ground about 8 or 9 feet asunder, and having a windlass attached to two of them.n. In coal-mining, the machinery for raising ore or coal from a mine by horse-power. [Eng.] Generally called whim or whim-gin in the United States.n. A machine for separating the seeds from cotton, hence called a cotton-gin. See cut undercotton-gin.n. A machine for driving piles.n. A pump moved by rotary sails.n. A trap; a snare; a springe.To catch in a trap.To clear (cotton) of seeds by means of the cotton-gin.n. An aromatic spirit prepared from rye or other grain and flavored with juniper-berries.n. A contraction of given.n. An Australian native woman; an old woman generally.