pinch /pinch or pinsh/ transitive verb- To compress a small part of between fingers and thumb or between any two surfaces, to nip
- To squeeze
- To crush
- To nip off
- To bite (obsolete)
- To bring or render by squeezing or nipping
- (of eg cold or hunger) to affect painfully or injuriously
- To cause to show the effects of such pain or injury
- To harass
- To hamper
- To restrict
- To stint, be miserly or frugal with
- To find fault with (obsolete)
- To steal (informal)
- To arrest (informal)
- To over-urge (horse-racing)
- To move along with a lever
intransitive verb- To nip or squeeze
- To be painfully tight
- To encroach
- To carp
- To live sparingly
- To narrow, taper off (mining)
noun- An act or experience of pinching
- A critical time of difficulty or hardship
- An emergency
- A pleat (obsolete)
- An upward curl of a hat-brim (obsolete)
- A place of narrowing, folding, difficulty, or steepness
- A quantity taken up between the finger and thumb
- Hence, any small quantity
- An iron bar used as a lever
ORIGIN: OFr pincier; prob Gmc pinched adjective - Having the appearance of being tightly squeezed
- Hard pressed by want or cold
- (of the face, or general appearance) haggard with cold, tiredness, hunger, etc
- Narrowed
- Straightened
pinchˈer noun - Someone who or something which pinches
- (in pl) pincers (dialect)
pinchˈing noun and adjective pinchˈingly adverb pinchˈcock noun A clamp that stops the flow of liquid by pinching a tube pinchˈcommons singular noun A niggard with food pinch effect noun (nuclear eng) In a plasma carrying a large current, the constriction arising from the interaction of the current with its own magnetic field pinchˈfist, pinchˈgut or pinchˈpenny noun A niggard pinchˈ-hit intransitive verb (baseball) To bat in place of another in an emergency (also figurative) pinchˈ-hitter noun - A batter replacing another in an emergency or for tactical reasons (baseball; also figurative)
- A player promoted in the batting order to score quickly (cricket)
pinchˈpoint noun A constricted, awkward or congested point, eg in the traffic system at a pinch In a case of necessity or emergency feel the pinch (informal) To be in financial difficulties, to find life, work, etc difficult because of lack of money know where the shoe pinches To know by direct experience what the trouble or difficulty is take with a pinch of salt see under salt1 |