échiner
French, verb/e.ʃi.ne/
échiner is a French verb meaning “to break someone's back” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Endommager, blesser, meurtrir dans la partie de l’échine”.
What does échiner mean in English?
verb
- 1
to break someone's back
- 2
to wear out, to tire
- 3
to break one's back
- 4
to tire oneself out
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Endommager, blesser, meurtrir dans la partie de l’échine. 2. Assommer, tuer dans une mêlée, dans une déroute. 3. Maltraiter quelqu’un par des propos ou des écrits. 4. S’excéder de fatigue, se donner beaucoup de peine.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of échiner
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- échinant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- échiné participle past
- échine first-person indicative present
- échines indicative present second-person
- échinons first-person indicative plural
- échinez indicative plural present
- échinent indicative plural present
- échinais first-person imperfect indicative
- échinait imperfect indicative singular
- échinions first-person imperfect indicative
- échiniez imperfect indicative plural
- échinaient imperfect indicative plural
- échinai first-person historic indicative
- échinas historic indicative past
- échina historic indicative past
- échinâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce échiner?
- /e.ʃi.ne/
- \e.ʃi.ne\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is échiner in French?
échiner appears about once in every 24 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).