cinchn.
/sɪntʃ//sɪnʃ/ 1. The saddle-girth used in Mexico, and the adjacent parts of the United States, usually made of separate twisted strands of horse-hair. U.S.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [noun] > girth
wanty1297
wame-towc1310
womb ropea1325
girth1377
surcingle1390
warrok1392
garthc1425
cinglec1430
girt1563
wanty rope1569
girse1591
saddle banda1604
mail girt1607
saddle girt1613
saddle girth1635
mail-girth1673
girding1680
body girth1688
roller1688
wombtack1729
breast-girth1805
girthing1805
cinch1866
latigo1873
1866 J. K. Lord Naturalist in Brit. Columbia I. 234 One girth only is used, styled a ‘synch’, made of horsehair.
1872 C. King Mountaineering in Sierra Nevada vi. 119 I leaned down and felt of the cinch, to see if it had slipped.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2186/2 Sinch.
1878 E. B. Tuttle Border Tales ix. 35 The whole is fastened by a broad ‘belly-band’, termed a sinch.
1878 E. B. Tuttle Border Tales ix. 38 The first hard pull is made upon the sinch.
1884 J. Miller Memorie & Rime 168 Colonel Bill had just set the rowels of his great Spanish spurs in the broad cinch in order to push his horse.
1888 J. A. Lees & W. J. Clutterbuck B.C. 1887: Ramble in Brit. Columbia (1892) xxi. 229 A synch (girth) of ordinary size.
2. figurative. A firm or secure hold; a sure, safe, or easy thing; a dead certainty. Also attributive. Originally U.S.
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the world > action or operation > easiness > [noun] > that which is easy
ball play?c1225
child's gamec1380
boys' play1538
walkover1861
picnic1870
pudding1884
cakewalk1886
pie1886
cinch1888
snipa1890
pushover1891
pinch1897
sitter1898
pipe1902
five-finger exercise1903
duck soup1912
pud1917
breeze1928
kid stuff1929
soda1930
piece of cake1936
doddle1937
snack1941
stroll1942
piece of piss1949
waltz1968
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > absence of doubt, confidence > assured fact, certainty > certain prospect or possession > [noun] > something easily done or acquired
sure card?1562
sure thing1836
open-and-shut1841
cinch1888
cert1889
snipa1890
pinch1897
lead-pipe1898
sitter1898
stone ginger1936
slam dunk1984
the world > movement > absence of movement > hold or holding > [noun] > firmness of hold > grip or grasp > firm or secure grasp or hold
handfast?1548
holdfast1578
cincha1910
1888 N.Y. World 22 July (Farmer) The racehorse owner, who has a cinch bottled up for a particular race.
1893 Sun (N.Y.) 10 Mar. 1/1 Up to within two weeks Keene has proceeded upon the theory that he had a cinch.
1904 G. V. Hobart Jim Hickey iv. 54 We'll have to stand by Amy and the kid, that's a cinch, Danny!
1904 G. H. Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham 8 A man's son is entitled to a chance in the business, but not a cinch.
a1910 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 208 ‘It's tough to be alone in New York—that's a cinch,’ said Mr. Donovan.
a1910 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 252 The devil seems to have a cinch on all the business in New York.
1911 H. Quick Yellowstone Nights iii. 69 The recent progress in bacteriological science..seemed to make the diagnosis a cinch.
1923 R. D. Paine Comrades Rolling Ocean iv. 73 Going to sea was a perfect cinch with just enough to do to keep a fellow healthy.
1930 P. MacDonald Link ix. 169 My God! As far as I'm concerned it's a cinch.
1936 A. Huxley Eyeless in Gaza xxv. 353 ‘How would you like to be called a fever frau?’ he asked his younger daughter... ‘Or worse, a cinch pushover, my dear?’
1957 New Yorker 29 June 67/1 From there on, it was a relative cinch.
3. Cards. A variety of all-fours, also called double pedro and high five.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > other card games > [noun] > all fours
all fours1674
seven-up1830
old sledge1834
pitch1860
California jack1865
Pedro Sancho1875
cinch1889
high five1889
Californian jack1893
sell-out-
1889 in Dict. Americanisms I found that sinch is the great North-western game of cards, a recent invention.
1892 Outing Jan. 287/2 Fellers, I brung Dave over fur a game o' cinch, an' we kin hev a squat round fur a couple o' hours.
1946 A. H. Morehead & G. Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 57 Cinch, a partnership game for four players, is the aristocrat of the high-low-jack games.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
cinchv.
/sɪnʃ/ U.S.
1.
a. (Also with up.) transitive. To fix (a saddle, etc.) securely by means of a girth; to fix (a girth). Also transferred, of clothing: to girdle, pull in.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [verb (transitive)] > girth
girdc1330
warrok1362
resengle1485
girth1580
cinch1866
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [verb (transitive)] > girth > secure saddle with
girt1663
girtha1821
cinch1866
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > providing with clothing > provide with clothing [verb (transitive)] > adjust or arrange > gather or pull in
gather1576
cinch1915
1866 ‘M. Twain’ Speeches 2 Oct. (1923) 13 They never cinch a Californian's horse tight enough.
1866 J. K. Lord Naturalist in Brit. Columbia I. 234 The saddle is firmly ‘synched’.
1873 J. H. Beadle Undeveloped West xv. 273 With all set and everything tightly ‘cinched’, we took the start.
1878 E. B. Tuttle Border Tales ix. 36 All soon learn to swell themselves out when being sinched.
1884 J. Miller Memorie & Rime 56 The..Californian sinched his little mule till she grunted.
1897 Outing 29 457/1 As the moment for the start approaches, the saddles are cinched tighter.
1905 A. Adams Outlet 310 Saddles were..cinched on waiting horses.
1910 J. Hart Vigilante Girl x. 143 Each mule would carefully blow himself up to prevent his girth being cinched too tightly.
1912 C. E. Mulford & J. W. Clay Buck Peters, Ranchman iv. 76 Buck cinched up his saddle on Allday and let him out of the stable.
1915 J. London Jacket 54 They call it [lacing the jacket] ‘cinching’ in prison lingo.
1957 New Yorker 16 Nov. 150/2 A shirt-topped..sheath..cinched in with a three-inch-wide self cummerbund.
1961 Times 24 Jan. 12/5 Cinched-in dresses and coats.
1966 Harper's Bazaar Sept. 50 Smashing glitter of..sequins cinching the body, banding matt black crêpe.
b. intransitive. To fix a saddle-girth.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [verb (intransitive)] > girth
cinch1887
1887 St. Nicholas XIV. 732 At Giles's ranch, on the divide, the party halted to cinch up.
1913 C. E. Mulford Coming of Cassidy ii. 35 Cinching deftly, [he] slung himself up by the stirrup.
2.
a. figurative. To get (a person) into a tight place; to secure a hold upon. (See also quot. 1875.)
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society > authority > control > [verb (transitive)] > get into one's or its control
temea1387
to take hold1577
to lay, fasten a gripe on, upona1586
amenage1590
to get (a person, etc.) where the hair is short1872
cinch1875
to get a handle on1901
to sew up1904
1875 Scribner's Monthly July 277 A man is cinched = he is hurt in a mining transaction (San Francisco localism).
1881 N.Y. Times 18 Dec. in Notes & Queries V. 65/1 It is unfairly said that the Northern Pacific Company intends to ‘cinch’ the settlers by exacting large prices for its lands.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. xc. 239 To use an expressive Californian phrase, capital, and especially accumulated capital, wherever it was found, was to be ‘cinched’. [Note 'Cinching' is drawing tight the girths of a horse.]
1904 F. Lynde Grafters ix. 125 I have it on pretty good authority that the ring is cinching the other companies right and left.
1910 T. Roosevelt in Outlook 3 Sept. 2/1 If the rich man strives to use his wealth to destroy others, I will cinch him if I can.
1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap vii. 292 I'm cinched for hell, anyway, and don't have to make it tighter by torturing poor dumb brutes.
b. To make certain of (something); to render (something) conclusive. slang.
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the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > absence of doubt, confidence > assured fact, certainty > making certain, assurance > assure, make certain [verb (transitive)] > make firm, establish
i-fastc950
tailc1315
terminea1325
foundc1394
stablish1447
terminate?a1475
tailyec1480
to lay down1493
ascertain1494
bishop1596
salve1596
pitch1610
assign1664
determinate1672
settle1733
to set at rest1826
definitize1876
cinch1900
1900 Dial. Notes 2 27 (College words) Cinch, to make sure of anything.
1903 A. H. Lewis Boss 315 Melting Moses..goes after him to cinch the play. I tell you one thing; he cinches it.
1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 25 That extra hour and a half cinches our escape.
1924 R. Lardner How to write Short Stories (1926) 335 It'll be pretty soft for you, because they got the pennant cinched and they'll cut you in on the big money.
1930 D. Hammett Maltese Falcon xix. 231 He's not a fall-guy unless he's a cinch to take the fall. Well, to cinch that I've got to know what's what.
1964 New Statesman 10 Apr. 571/1 English readers shouldn't be put off by Professor Shattuck's Texan manner of what he calls ‘cinching’ an argument.
3. In the game of cinch: to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.
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1889 in Dict. Amer. Eng. Prevent him from making as many points as he has agreed to make. If he fails to make good his offer, he is ‘sinched’.
1946 A. H. Morehead & G. Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 59 If no higher trump has been played, third hand must usually cinch a trick by playing some higher trump than the five.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
> see also
also refers to : cinch-comb. form
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n.1866v.1866see also