حِينٌ

i. q. دَهْرٌ [Time; or a time; or a space, or period, of time; &c.]: (K:) or, according to EshSháfi'ee, time, from the beginning of the world to its end; as also دَهْرٌ: (Az voce دَهْرٌ:) or a time, (Az, S, Mgh, Msb, K,) in a vague sense, (Mgh, K,) applicable to any time, (Az, K,) little or much, (Mgh, Msb,) long or short, that may be a year and more: or [in some cases] particularly meaning forty years: or seven years: or two years: or six months: or two months: or any morning and evening: (K:) also a space of time; (S, K;) as in the Qur'an lxxvi. I, (S,) and in the Qur'an, 37:178: (K:) and a continuous time: (Ham p. 381:) and the day of resurrection; (K;) or the coming to pass of the resurrection; as in the Qur'an, 38, last verse: (Mgh, TA:) or it has two meanings; namely, a time of unknown limit, and also, as in the Qur'an, 14:30, six months: (Fr, Msb:) according to Er-Rághib, the time of a thing's arriving, or coming, and happening; having a vague meaning, and rendered particular, or special, by that to which it is prefixed: some say that it occurs applied in different ways: to an appointed term; as that to which God makes one to live: and a year; as in the Qur'an, 14:30: and to the time when an event takes place; as in the Qur'an, 30:16: and to time absolutely: according to El-Munáwee, in the [genuine] language of the Arabs, it is applied to [the time of] a glance of the eye, and more than that, to time without end: (TA:) the plural is أَحْيَانٌ, (S, Msb, K,) and plural plural أَحَايِينُ; (S, * K;) as in the saying, فُلَانٌ يَفْعَلُ كَذَا أَحْيَانًا and فِى الأَحَايِينِ [Such a one does so at times, or sometimes]. (S.) In the Qur'an, 14:30, تُوءْتِى, أُكُلَهَا كُلَّ حِينٍ means [Which yieldeth its fruit] every six months: (Fr, Msb, TA:) or every year: or every morning and evening: or, according to Az, in every season, uninterruptedly. (TA.) شَىْءٍ مِحْيَانُ, also, means حِينُهُ [The time, or season, of a thing]. (K.) [You say, إِلَى حِينٍ For a time, or season.] And حِينًا At one time; sometime; at some time; awhile. (Mgh.) حِينَ in the phrase قُمْتُ حِينَ قُمْتَ [I stood in the time when thou stoodest, or I stood when thou stoodest,] is an adv. n. of time; (Msb;) [see also an example in a verse cited voce خَشَفَ, and the remarks there subjoined:] and one may well employ in its place لَمَّا and إِذَا (Msb, TA) and إِذْ and مَتَى and سَاعَةَ (TA) and وَقْتَ (Msb, TA) and the like; but not, as many have said, حَيْثُ; for this is an adv. n. of place. (Msb.)

When they make the two times to be distant, the one from the other, [i. e. the time of speaking and the time spoken of,] they do so by means of إذ, and thus, (K,) they say حِينَيءِذٍ [meaning At that time; then]: (S, K:) and sometimes they suppress the ء, substituting for it ى. (TA.)

Sometimes, also, they prefix تَ to حِينَ; (S, TA;) and say لَا تَحِينَ, meaning It is not, or was not, a time [of such a thing; but this is generally written لَاتَ حِينَ]; as in the Qur'an, 38:2 [respecting which see article ليت]. (TA.) Aboo-Wejzeh Es-Saadee says,

اَلْعَاطِفُونَ تَحِينَ مَا مِنْ عَاطِفٍ

وَالمُطْعِمُونَ زَمَانَ أَيْنَ المُطْعِوُ

[The persons who return to the attack when there is none other that returns to the attack, (as is said in the S and L in article عطف,) or it may mean who act affectionately in the time when there is none other that acts affectionately; as is said in the L in that article;) and the feeders in the time when it is said, Where is the feeder?]: (S:) ISd says that ت is thus prefixed to حين like as it is in تَلَانَ meaning الانَ: but IB says that Ibn-Es-Seeráfee cites the former hemistich thus:

اَلْعَاطِفُونَهْ حِينَ مَامِنْ عَاطِفٍ

[with the ه of pausation]: and some say that the ه of pausation is likened to the feminine ة, and is then made movent with fet-h. (TA. [See more in article ليت.])