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Pinch   /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.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Pinch" Quotes from Famous Books



... scold me, just for a little pinch of dust!" replied Reine, turning as red as a cherry as she threw the remainder of the handful which she had taken from a mole-heap close ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... "I never saw that effect before." Next she took the phial and powdered it into a pinch of tiny dust with a whale's tooth that lay upon the table. The dust she took to the window and threw out, a little at a time. Lady Bellamy wished to die as she had lived, a mystery. Then she came and stood over the deadly draught she had compounded, and thought sometimes ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... "but—" then a warning pinch from Miriam caused her to eye the latter reproachfully ...
— Grace Harlowe's First Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... yourself, and think of your own sins, young man," he answered, with a grim smile, and taking a pinch of snuff, while at that very moment a flash of lightning, I don't know from which storm, struck the ground within thirty paces of me. That was enough for me, I took to my heels, and as I went I heard old ...
— Allan's Wife • H. Rider Haggard
... corn-meal or maize mixed with water, which he munched as he went along. In Tachienlu, my supply of biscuits having given out, I had my cook buy some of these; split open and toasted, they were not at all bad. Tea, of course, was to be had everywhere; a pinch of tea-leaves in a covered cup and unstinted boiling water cost from five to twenty cash a cup, and most refreshing I found it. On the whole, the food looked attractive, and the fact that whether liquid or solid ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall


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