pinch

present singular third person pinches · participle present pinching · participle past pinched · past pinched

1. To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.

   This shoe pinches my foot.

   1 more example

   The children were scolded for pinching each other.

   Synonyms: tweak

2. To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.

   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.

   2014, Harlan Ellison, Paingod and Other Delusions, →ISBN

3. To squeeze between two objects.

   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.

   2012, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Physics of Nanostructured Solid State Devices, →ISBN, page 446

4. intransitiveOf clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.

   With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention While queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.

   1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull

5. slangtransitiveTo steal, usually something inconsequential.

   Someone has pinched my handkerchief!

   2 more examples

   “Hey, blokes,” yelled Dean or perhaps Serge, “let's pinch a boat.”

   1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 37

   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.

   2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport

   Synonyms: crib, purloin, steal, abduct, abstract, appropriate, bag, bandit

6. slangtransitiveTo arrest or capture.

   Synonyms: bust, nick, apprehend, begripe, capture, fang, grasp, get

7. agricultureTo cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
8. nauticalTo sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
9. hobbiesTo take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
10. intransitiveobsoleteTo be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.

    1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare

    1 more example

    There was with him none other fare, But for to pinche and for to spare

    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

    Synonyms: cheesepare, cut it fine, pinch pennies, skimp

11. To seize; to grip; to bite.

    He [the hound] pinch'd and pull'd her down.

    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

12. figurativelyTo cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.

    to be pinched for money

    4 more examples

    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;

    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]

    want of room […] which pincheth the whole nation

    c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

    […]the well-to-do working men did not hope, since they were not pinched and had no means of learning their degraded position[…]

    1888, William Morris, Signs of Change […] , London: Reeves and Turner, page 105

    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.

    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

13. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
14. obsoleteTo complain or find fault.

    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,

    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"

    Synonyms: grumble, rail, beef, bellyache, bemoan, bitch, bleat, whimper

plural pinches

1. The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
2. A close compression of anything with the fingers.

   I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.

3. A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.

   Mix about four cups of white flour with a pinch of salt.

   Synonyms: smidgen, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, continental

4. An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.

   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:

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, page 171

   Synonyms: difficulty, kettle of fish, ass in a sling, bind, bucket of syrup, calvary, cauldron, cross

5. A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.

   Synonyms: crowbar, jimmy, nail bar

6. An organic herbal smoke additive.
7. natural sciencesA magnetic compression of an electrically conducting filament.
8. The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.

   It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds.

   2001, Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

9. slangAn arrest.

   Synonyms: bust, collar

10. AustraliaNew ZealandA steep incline; a very steep section of road.

    Down several steep pinches the lubra went sprawling[.]

    1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 283