pinch

PINCH/pɪnt͡ʃ/

Noun pluralpinches

21 meanings of pinch

1
squeeze someone's skinverbtransitive
To squeeze a small fold of someone's skin and flesh hard enough to hurt.
If you pinch the baby's cheek that hard, she's going to cry.
The kids were sent to their rooms for pinching each other in the back seat.
Similarnip, squeeze, tweak
Note
The verb reached English from Old Northern French, and its deeper origin is uncertain: it may come from a Vulgar Latin verb meaning "to puncture, pinch", itself a blend of words for pricking and striking. That small, sharp hurt is still the core here, and the gentler squeezes of the word grow out of it.
2
small amountnouncountable
A small amount of a powder or granular substance, as much as can be held between the tip of a finger and the thumb.
The recipe calls for a pinch of cayenne pepper and two cloves of garlic.
He took a pinch of snuff from the little silver box.
Similardash, smidgen, bit, dusting
3
a skin squeezenouncountable
An act of squeezing a small fold of someone's skin and flesh hard enough to hurt.
He woke his sleeping friend with a quick pinch on the arm.
The toddler's pinches left little red marks on her mother's wrist.
Similarnip, tweak
4
tight spotnouncountable
A difficult situation, especially a financial or social one, that is hard to get out of.
When the shop lost its biggest customer, the owners found themselves in a serious pinch.
In a pinch, the old couch in the den can sleep two guests.
Similarfix, jam, bind, spot, pickle
Note
The noun often turns up in the phrase in a pinch, "when hard pressed, if it really comes to that": a couch that will sleep two in a pinch. Marlowe's Tamburlaine has the older preposition, "at such a sudden pinch", and Rex Stout's "Die Like a Dog" plays on both readings at once: any of four men "could have done it in a pinch, and it sure was a pinch".
5
press with fingersverbtransitive
To squeeze something between the thumb and forefinger.
Pinch the edges of the dumplings firmly so they don't open while cooking.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
Similarsqueeze, press
6
stealverbslangtransitive
To steal something, usually something of little value.
Guests pinch the hotel's bathrobes so often that the staff now counts them.
Someone pinched the last doughnut from the break room.
Similarsteal, filch, crib, bag, boost
Note
Its lightness suits small thefts, a pen or a sandwich, and gives a bigger one a cheeky, casual air, as in Thomas Pynchon's "let's pinch a boat" (1966). Sports writers stretch it to a late, slightly lucky success: a team pinches a last-gasp winner. It is slang for casual talk, never for a police report or a courtroom.
7
trap betweenverbtransitive
To squeeze something between two objects.
The elevator doors are designed so they won't pinch a child's hand as they close.
A loose wire can get pinched between the panel and the frame and wear through.
Similartrap, catch, squeeze, crush
8
too tightverbintransitive
Of clothing, to fit uncomfortably tight in particular places.
The boots looked great in the store, but they pinch across the toes.
His starched collar pinched all through the ceremony.
9
a finger pressnouncountable
A tight squeeze of something between the fingers.
A quick pinch of the dough told the baker it needed more flour.
Two firm pinches along the top sealed the plastic bag shut.
Similarsqueeze
10
cause hardshipverbfigurativelytransitive
To cramp, constrain or oppress, especially by leaving someone short of money, food or room.
The budget cuts will pinch the smaller rural schools hardest.
Years of drought had pinched the farming towns until half the stores on Main Street closed.
Similarsqueeze, hit, hurt, strain
Note
Here the squeeze is on means rather than flesh, and the verb is most at home in the passive: pinched for money, for time, for room. Shakespeare's Leontes, sure he is betrayed, calls himself "a pinch'd thing", and William Morris wrote in 1888 of well-to-do working men who "did not hope, since they were not pinched".

11
arrest someoneverbslangtransitive
To arrest or capture someone.
If the cops pinch you again, nobody is going to bail you out.
Undercover officers pinched three suspects as they left the warehouse.
Similarnick, bust, apprehend, capture
Note
The verb lives in casual talk and crime stories, and it often comes with get: he got pinched leaving the bank. Bust and nick do the same work, and the matching noun names the arrest itself.
12
an arrestnounslangcountable
An arrest.
The detective made the pinch just as the suspect reached the airport.
Two pinches in one month cost him his job at the casino.
Similarbust, collar
Note
The word is police slang, usually told from the officer's side: a detective makes the pinch, and a good pinch is an arrest worth making. Collar works the same way, so an officer can be proud of a big collar or a big pinch.
13
animal gripverbtransitive
Of an animal, to seize, grip, or bite.
The lobster pinched the diver's glove and would not let go.
A terrier will pinch a rat by the neck and shake it until it goes still.
Similarnip, grip, seize, bite
14
cut shootsverbtransitive
To nip off a plant's shoots or buds so as to shape it or make it more productive.
Pinch out the side shoots on tomatoes so the plant puts its energy into fruit.
Growers pinch chrysanthemums back in early summer to get more flowers in the fall.
Similarprune, nip, trim
Note
Gardeners usually do this with finger and thumb, nipping off a soft growing tip, and the working phrases are pinch out and pinch back. Removing the tip makes the plant branch from buds lower down, which is why pinched basil grows bushy instead of tall and leggy.
15
hourglass necknouncountable
The narrow neck joining the two bulbs of an hourglass.
She watched the last grains of sand slip through the pinch.
The glassblower narrowed the pinch so the hourglass would run for exactly three minutes.
Similarneck, waist
16
metal barnouncountable
A metal bar used as a lever for lifting heavy loads, moving wheels, and similar jobs.
The yard worker jammed a pinch under the wheel and levered the freight car forward a few inches.
With a pinch and a block of wood, two men raised the beam high enough to slide rollers underneath.
Similarcrowbar, jimmy
17
magnetic squeezenouncountable
The compression of an electrically conducting filament by magnetic forces.
In the experiment, a sudden pinch squeezed the plasma column into a thin, bright thread.
Early fusion researchers hoped a strong enough pinch could hold hot plasma in place.
Note
Physicists also call it the pinch effect. A current running along a conductor sets up a magnetic field around it, and that field presses inward on the current itself, so a plasma column carrying a strong current squeezes itself thinner. The squeezed column heats up but tends to become unstable.
18
sailingverbintransitive
To sail so close to the wind that the sails begin to flutter.
The skipper kept pinching to clear the buoy, and the jib luffed every few seconds.
Pinch too hard on the beat upwind and the boat stalls with its sails fluttering.
Note
Sailors pinch when they point the boat a little higher than its best angle to the wind, usually to clear a mark or gain ground upwind. The price is speed: the front edge of the sail starts to luff, and a boat that pinches for long slows down and slips sideways.
19
move rail carsverbtransitive
To move something, such as a railroad car, by prying at its wheels with a pinch.
With no engine available, the crew pinched the empty car down to the loading dock.
Two men can pinch a freight car along level track once the brakes are off.
20
be stingyverbobsoleteintransitive
To be tight-fisted or grasping with money, or to live frugally and do without.
For years the family pinched and spared to buy the little farm.
There was with him none other fare, But for to pinche and for to spare
c. 1386, John Gower, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts
Similarskimp
Note
The verb usually traveled in a pair, to pinch and spare, a phrase already found in John Gower's Confessio Amantis. The bare verb has dropped out of this meaning, but the idea survives in pinch pennies and in the money-trouble noun.
21
complainverbobsolete
To grumble 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
Similarcomplain, grumble, gripe, grouse, carp
Note
The meaning is long out of use, and it took at before whatever was faulted: to pinch at someone's condition. The same pattern lives on in carp at and pick at, which do this job today.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English pinchen, from Old Northern French *pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer, "to pinch"), of uncertain origin. It is possibly from Vulgar Latin *pinciāre "to puncture, pinch", 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").