pinch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪntʃ
Forms: form: pinches
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: glosses: The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
examples: text: I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.
glosses: A close compression of anything with the fingers.
examples: text: Mix about four cups of white flour with a pinch of salt.
synonyms: word: smidgen
word: ace
word: tinge
word: atom
word: trace element
word: aught
word: bissel
word: bit
word: crumb
word: glimpse
word: dab
word: damn
word: dash
word: diddly
word: glint
word: dot
word: spatter
word: drop
word: dusting
word: fleck
word: hint
word: flip
word: flyspeck
word: grain
word: halfpennyworth
word: inch
word: iota
word: jot
word: lick
word: mite
word: modicum
word: molecule
word: morceau
word: morsel
word: mote
word: ooch
word: ounce
word: particle
word: pennyworth
word: piece
word: pinch
word: scantling
word: semblance
word: scent
word: scintilla
word: scooch
word: scrap
word: scruple
word: shred
word: skerrick
word: skoosh
word: skosh
word: sliver
word: smattering
word: smidge
word: smidgen
word: smidget
word: smidgy
word: smitch
word: smithereen
word: soupçon
word: spark
word: speck
word: speckle
word: spot
word: sprinkle
word: sprinkling
word: strain
word: tad
word: tidbit
word: tidge
word: tittle
word: toddick
word: touch
word: trace
word: trifle
word: tuppence worth
word: vestige
word: whiff
word: whit
glosses: A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
examples: text: And wel his merits ſhew him to be made
His Fortunes maiſter, and the king of men.
That could perſwade at ſuch a ſodaine pinch,
With reaſons of his valour and his life,
A thouſand ſworne and ouer-matching foes:
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
text: It took nerve and muscle both to carry the body out and down the stairs to the lower hall, but he damn well had to get it out of his place and away from his door, and any of those four could have done it in a pinch, and it sure was a pinch.
ref: 1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, page 171:
synonyms: word: difficulty
word: kettle of fish
word: ass in a sling
word: bind
word: bucket of syrup
word: calvary
word: cross
word: cross to bear
word: difficulty
word: dilemma
word: dire straits
word: doghouse
word: fix
word: hole
word: jam
word: kettle of fish
word: ordeal
word: pickle
word: pinch
word: plight
word: predicament
word: quandary
word: quagmire
word: situation
word: spot
word: spot of bother
word: sticky situation
word: sticky wicket
word: tight spot
word: trouble
glosses: An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
synonyms: crowbar
jimmy
nail bar
glosses: A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
glosses: An organic herbal smoke additive.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A magnetic compression of an electrically conducting filament.
examples: text: It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds.
ref: 2001, Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time:
glosses: The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
synonyms: bust
collar
glosses: An arrest.
Derived terms: at a pinch
Bennett pinch
cock-and-pinch
feel the pinch
in a pinch
Jack at a pinch
nanopinch
on a pinch
pinch and a punch for the first of the month
pinch bar
pinchbar
pinch-belly
pinch cake
pinch-commons
pinch effect
pinch force
pinch grafting
pinch-gut
pinch-hit
pinch hit
pinch-hitter
pinch hitter
pinchlike
pinch of salt
pinch of the game
pinch point
pinch pot
pinch roller
pinch runner
pinchy
take with a pinch of salt
theta pinch
velar pinch
zeta pinch
Z-pinch
θ-pinch