PINCH • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Pinch

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/pɪntʃ/ Listen

noun

Pinch n.

1.

A close compression, as with the ends of the fingers, or with an instrument; a nip.

2.

As much as may be taken between the finger and thumb; any very small quantity; as, a pinch of snuff.

3.

Pian; pang. "Necessary's sharp pinch."

4.

A lever having a projection at one end, acting as a fulcrum, used chiefly to roll heavy wheels, etc. Called also pinch bar.

At a pinch, On a pinch, in an emergency; as, he could on a pinch read a little Latin.

verb

Pinch v. t. (past & past part. pinched; pres. part. pinching)

1.

To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers, between teeth or claws, or between the jaws of an instrument; to squeeze or compress, as between any two hard bodies.

2.

To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals. (Obs.) "He (the hound) pinched and pulled her down."

3.

To plait. (Obs.) "Full seemly her wimple ipinched was."

4.

Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money. "Want of room... pinching a whole nation."

5.

To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch. See Pinch, n., 4.

6.

To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift. (Slang)

7.

To catch; to arrest (a criminal).

Pinch v. i.

1.

To act with pressing force; to compress; to squeeze; as, the shoe pinches.

2.

(Hunt.) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does. (Obs.)

3.

To spare; to be niggardly; to be covetous. "The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare."

To pinch at, to find fault with; to take exception to. (Obs.)

See images of 'Pinch'

Etymology of 'Pinch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pinch" Quotes from Famous Books

... their heads uncovered. It is to be feared that true domestic bliss was almost unknown in olden times. Teachers were equally tyrannical, and it is a matter of history that Roger Ascham, the tutor of Queen Elizabeth, used to "pinch, nip, and bob [slap] the ...

— Bygone Punishments • William Andrews

... nothing, even paying for it out of their own pockets when they weren't over-flush ... my goodness, if we can only get people with that kind of spirit into our group, we'll mould the world! By the way, we ought to pinch some ideas from the Fabians! We could meet somewhere ... here, to begin with. And when we've got a group of fellows together with some notion of what we all want to do, we can start inviting eminent ones to talk to us ... and heckle the stuffing ...

— Changing Winds - A Novel • St. John G. Ervine

... let that man know, William, that I have dispatched my OWN business, and am at leisure for his now (taking a pinch of snuff). Hum! pray, William (Justice leans back gravely), what sort of a looking fellow is ...

— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth

... chord (the common mark and manner of the later school of harmonists[A]) and a new ascent on a literal ladder of subtlest progress, while hollow intervals are intermingled in the pinch of close harmonies. The bewildering maze here begins of multitudinous design, enriched with ...

— Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies • Philip H. Goepp

... how hard up you must be for ammunition, but I hope the M.G.O. will have by now put in hand the building up of some reserves at our base in Alexandria. If our batteries or battalions now serving in France run short, something, at a pinch, can always be scraped together in England and issued to them within 24 hours. Here it would be a question of almost as many days, and, if it were to turn out that we have a long and severe struggle, with ...

— Gallipoli Diary, Volume I • Ian Hamilton

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