pinch
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
hobbies
horticulture
hunting
lifestyle
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
physics
transport
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.
Inflected forms:
form: pinches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pinching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pinched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pinched
pos: verb
tags: past
form: pinches
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
pos: verb
examples: The children were scolded for pinching each other.
This shoe pinches my foot.
gloss: To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To squeeze between two objects.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: Of clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention
While queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.
gloss: To steal, usually something inconsequential.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
“Hey, blokes,” yelled Dean or perhaps Serge, “let's pinch a boat.”
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.
gloss: To arrest or capture.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
gloss: To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
pos: verb
gloss: To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
pos: verb
gloss: To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
pos: verb
gloss: To be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: There was with him none other fare,
But for to pinche and for to spare
1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper
the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
gloss: To seize; to grip; to bite.
pos: verb
examples: He [the hound] pinch'd and pull'd her down.
gloss: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: to be pinched for money
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;
want of room […] which pincheth the whole nation
[…]the well-to-do working men did not hope, since they were not pinched and had no means of learning their degraded position[…]
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.
gloss: To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
pos: verb
gloss: To complain or find fault.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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,
gloss: The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
pos: noun
gloss: A close compression of anything with the fingers.
pos: noun
examples: I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.
gloss: A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
pos: noun
examples: Mix about four cups of white flour with a pinch of salt.
gloss: An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
pos: noun
examples: 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:
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.
gloss: A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
pos: noun
gloss: An organic herbal smoke additive.
pos: noun
gloss: A magnetic compression of an electrically conducting filament.
pos: noun
gloss: The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
pos: noun
examples: It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds.
gloss: An arrest.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: A steep incline; a very steep section of road.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
examples: Down several steep pinches the lubra went sprawling[.]
Derived words: apinch
bepinch
penny-pinch
pinchability
pinchable
pinch a loaf
pinch at
pinch-belly vengeance
pinchcock
pincher
pinch-eyed
pinchfist
pinchfisted
pinch-me-round
pinch-nose glasses
pinch off
pinch one off
pinch out
pinch pennies
pinchpenny
squinch
topinch
unpinch
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
Queens Pinch
take with a pinch of salt
theta pinch
velar pinch
Yellow Pinch
zeta pinch
Z-pinch
θ-pinch
Translations: