pinching

comparative more pinching · superlative most pinching

1. That pinches, or causes such a sensation

   It was one January morning, very early — a pinching, frosty morning — the cove all gray with hoar-frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of pinch

plural pinchings

1. The act of one who or that which pinches.

   Simon ate an orange, removing the peel in fastidious pinchings, such delicacy in a dugout on a river flowing through the bush.

   2012, Paul Theroux, The Lower River

2. agricultureThe act of pinching off new growth.

   Six varieties gave more shoots from the greater number of pinchings while three had more shoots when pinching was discontinued August 10.

   1926, Bimonthly Bulletin of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, page 139

3. theft

   As "Kings of the Covers," they re-recorded happening disks by Elvis ("Heartbreak Hotel") […] and, for their most publicly-known pinching, THE JAYHAWKS ("Stranded In The Jungle").

   1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 20