inch
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
Etymology: From Middle English ynche, enche, from Old English ynċe, borrowed from Latin uncia (“Roman inch, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Cognate with Middle Dutch enke (“thumb, thumb's width, inch”). Doublet of ounce, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.
Inflected forms:
form: inches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: inch
pos: noun
tags: UK
colloquial
plural
form: in
pos: noun
tags: abbreviation
form: in.
pos: noun
tags: abbreviation
form: ″
pos: noun
tags: abbreviation
form: inches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: inching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: inched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: inched
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, conceived as roughly the width of a thumb.
pos: noun
examples: The sledges of the Esquimaux are of large size, varying from six and a half to nine and even eleven feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth.
The term "precision measurement" […] refers to the art of reproducing and controlling dimensions expressed in thousandths of an inch or smaller.
He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."
Youth worker Rob, 25, is 5’ 3” tall but measures 6’ 6” around his girth – just an inch less than the height of England’s beanpole striker Peter Crouch.
gloss: Any very short distance.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Don't move an inch!
Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.
[B]e the consequences what they may, they shall not move an inch, nor a hair's-breadth from the ground of their groundless spiritual independence, […]
gloss: Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
pos: noun
gloss: A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
pos: noun
examples: Let us consider what one inch of rain really means. If an acre of land were covered with water to the depth of only the tenth part of an inch, that layer of water would weigh more than 10 tons: thus 1 inch of rain is ten times that amount—in fact, very nearly 101 tons.
gloss: A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.
pos: noun
gloss: To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.
On reaching the section under construction they must be capable of inching the train forward on rough track up gradients as steep as 1 in 30.
The window blind had been lowered — Zooey had done all his bathtub reading by the light from the three-bulb overhead fixture—but a fraction of morning light inched under the blind and onto the title page of the manuscript.
Already guarding a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Blackpool inched further ahead when Stephen Dobbie scored from an acute angle on the stroke of half-time. The game appeared to be completely beyond Birmingham’s reach three minutes into the second period when Matt Phillips reacted quickly to bundle the ball past Colin Doyle and off a post.
gloss: To drive by inches, or small degrees.
pos: verb
examples: He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.
gloss: To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.
pos: verb
gloss: cocky and cheeky
pos: adj
tags: Hong-Kong
colloquial
examples: I still remember Donald Duck sit next to him after NG dog being 'Done'd to F.2 building... he is still very Inch in Year 1983-4 teaching me RS
The service was professional but very "inch". We were served by a Cantonese speaking local. The waiter asked if we wanted water without telling us it costs $75 for just water!!
Related words: thou
mil
Derived words: acre-inch
a mile wide and an inch deep
Big Inch
budge an inch
characters per inch
column inch
cubic inch
dots per inch
every inch
give an inch
give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
give them an inch and they'll take a mile
give them an inch and they'll take an ell
half-inch
half inch
Inchbonnie
inch by inch
incher
inchful
inchlong
inchmeal
inch-perfect
inch stuff
inch tracker
inchwide
in for an inch, in for a mile
Little Big Inch
metric inch
microinch
miner's inch
pixels per inch
pyramid inch
slinch
square inch
twelve-inch
united inch
within an inch of one's life
within an inch of one's skin
inch along
inch away
inch back
inch forward
inch up
inchworm
Translations: