Meanings
kirin1
Kirin2
- datedSynonym of Jilin (a province in northeastern China).
Members of the Chinghsin people's commune in Hunchun County, Kirin Province, on the anti-revisionist forefront, demonstrated through the night.
1969 March 14 [1969 March 13], “Report from Border Areas”, in Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts, number 50, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Peking NCNA International Service, →OCLC, page A 64 more examples
A single caravan often numbers many as twenty large carts, each with a team of seven animals. In the best caravans, that is those which go into the provinces of Kirin and Hei-lung-chiang and into Mongolia, a team usually consists of a pony in the shafts and six tracing mules three abreast.
1904, Alexander Hosie, Manchuria: Its People, Resources and Recent History, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pages 11–12This trade had only begun to grow to considerable proportions in the later 'nineties, and, had not the Chinese Eastern Railway been built and Harbin founded, it is quite certain that steam flour-mills would have been erected by Russian speculators along the course of the Amur river to deal with the bulk cargoes of grain that were constantly being received from the Kirin province of Manchuria.
1908, B. L. Putnam Weale, The Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia, Macmillan and Co., Limited, pages 180–181During the present century, copper has been mined in Yunnan, Szechwan, Kansu, Sinkiang, Fukien, Liaoning, and Kirin; and deposits are known to be present in a number of other provinces.
1934, George Babock Cressey, China's Geographic Foundations: A Survey of the Land and Its People, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., →OCLC, page 122A “big-character” wall poster appearing in Changchun, Kirin Province, on Feb. 2, denounced the Chinese Communist regime’s crackdown on dissidents clamoring for human rights, an intelligence report from the Chinese mainland said April 3.
1979 April 8, “Wallposter in Kirin”, in Free China Weekly, volume XX, number 13, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3Synonyms: Jilin
- datedSynonym of Jilin (a city in the province of the same name).
Many sawmills are now in operation at Antung, at the mouth of the Yalu, and at Kirin on the Sungari River.
1922, South Manchuria Railway, Manchuria: Land of Opportunities, New York: Thomas F. Logan, page 461 more example
A simple example may be given to show the great advantage of railway transport in this country. In order to get from Kuan-cheng-tze to Kirin (a distance of eighty miles or so), we had to hire four carts to carry ourselves and our effects. The journey took three days and cost eighty roubles (£8) for cart hire alone. When the branch railway to Kirin is finished the same journey would take three hours, and the whole charge for ourselves and baggage could not exceed ten roubles (£1).
1904, H. J. Whigham, Manchuria and Korea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 56Synonyms: Jilin
Kirin3
- A surname.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of qilin; typically used in Japanese contexts.
proper nounSynonym of Jilin (a province in northeastern China).
proper nounSynonym of Jilin (a city in the province of the same name).
Origin
kirin · noun
Borrowed from Japanese 麒(き)麟(りん) (kirin), from Middle Chinese. Doublet of qilin.
Full word history & related roots →Kirin · proper noun
- mncᡤᡳᡵᡳᠨ
- EnglishKirin
Borrowed from Manchu ᡤᡳᡵᡳᠨ (girin).
More words from mnc
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
kirin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kirin
“kirin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kirin. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kirin,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kirin.
Source: kirin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.