pinch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪntʃ
Forms: form: pinches
form: pinching
form: pinched
form: pinched
Etymology: From Middle English pinchen, from Old Northern French *pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”)), a word of uncertain origin, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pinciāre (“to puncture, pinch”), from a merger of *punctiāre (“to puncture, sting”), from Latin punctiō (“a puncture, prick”) and *piccāre (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). More at point, pick and pitch.
Senses: examples: text: The children were scolded for pinching each other.
text: This shoe pinches my foot.
glosses: To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
examples: text: He took the plate in his hand, holding it between thumb and forefinger at one corner, letting it hang down. With the other hand he pinched it at the opposite corner, pressing thumb and forefinger together tightly.
ref: 2014, Harlan Ellison, Paingod and Other Delusions, →ISBN:
glosses: To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
examples: text: Since the resistance of the channel is inversely proportional to its width, the most resistive region is the one pinched between the gates where they come closest to each other.
ref: 2012, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Physics of Nanostructured Solid State Devices, →ISBN, page 446:
glosses: To squeeze between two objects.
examples: text: With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention
While queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.
ref: 1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:
glosses: Of clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.
examples: text: Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
text: “Hey, blokes,” yelled Dean or perhaps Serge, “let's pinch a boat.”
ref: 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 37:
text: Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.
ref: 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
synonyms: word: crib
word: purloin
word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
glosses: To steal, usually something inconsequential.
synonyms: word: bust
word: nick
word: apprehend
word: begripe
word: capture
word: fang
word: grasp
word: get
word: gripe
word: lay hold of
word: seize
word: take hold
glosses: To arrest or capture.
topics: agriculture
business
horticulture
lifestyle
glosses: To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
examples: text: There was with him none other fare,
But for to pinche and for to spare
ref: c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:
text: 1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper
the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
synonyms: cheesepare
cut it fine
pinch pennies
skimp
glosses: To be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.
examples: text: He [the hound] pinch'd and pull'd her down.
ref: 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
glosses: To seize; to grip; to bite.
raw_tags: of animals
examples: text: to be pinched for money
text: Camillo was his helpe in this, his Pandar:
There is a Plot against my Life, my Crowne;
All's true that is mistrusted: that false Villaine,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:
He ha's discouer'd my Designe, and I
Remaine a pinch'd Thing;
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: want of room […] which pincheth the whole nation
ref: c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:
text: […]the well-to-do working men did not hope, since they were not pinched and had no means of learning their degraded position[…]
ref: 1888, William Morris, Signs of Change […] , London: Reeves and Turner, page 105:
text: The Christian also spurns the pinched and mumping sick-room attitude, and the lives of saints are full of a kind of callousness to diseased conditions of body which probably no other human records show.
ref: 1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
glosses: To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
examples: text: Therefore who so them accuse
Of any double entencion,
To speake, rowne, other to muse,
To pinch at their condicion,
All is but false collusion,
I dare rightwell the sothe express,
They have no better protection,
ref: 1809, Alexander Chalmers ed. The Works of the English Poets, from Cahucer to Cowper, Vol. 1, modern rendering of poem imputed to Geoffrey Chaucer, "A Ballad which Chaucer made in Praise or rather Dispraise of Women for their Doubleness"
roman: But shrowd them vnder doubleness.
synonyms: word: grumble
word: rail
word: beef
word: bellyache
word: bemoan
word: bitch
word: bleat
word: carp
word: chunter
word: complain
word: crab
word: croak
word: dump on
word: frine
word: girn
word: give out
word: grumble
word: grotch
word: grouse
word: grouch
word: grump
word: gruntle
word: gripe
word: harp
word: inveigh
word: kvetch
word: latrate
word: make a stink
word: murmur
word: mutter
word: moan
word: nag
word: nark
word: nudzh
word: pinch
word: piss and moan
word: rail
word: rail out
word: repine
word: ride
word: snivel
word: whine
word: whinge
glosses: To complain or find fault.
Derived terms: apinch
bepinch
penny-pinch
pinchability
pinchable
pinch a loaf
pinch at
pinch-belly vengeance
pinchcock
pincher
pinchfist
pinchfisted
pinch-me-round
pinch-nose glasses
pinch off
pinch one off
pinch out
pinch pennies
pinchpenny
squinch
topinch
unpinch