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Pinch   /pɪntʃ/   Listen
Pinch

noun
1.
A painful or straitened circumstance.
2.
An injury resulting from getting some body part squeezed.
3.
A slight but appreciable amount.  Synonyms: hint, jot, mite, soupcon, speck, tinge, touch.
4.
A sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action.  Synonyms: emergency, exigency.
5.
A small sharp bite or snip.  Synonym: nip.
6.
A squeeze with the fingers.  Synonym: tweak.
7.
The act of apprehending (especially apprehending a criminal).  Synonyms: apprehension, arrest, catch, collar, taking into custody.
verb
(past & past part. pinched; pres. part. pinching)
1.
Squeeze tightly between the fingers.  Synonyms: nip, squeeze, tweet, twinge, twitch.  "She squeezed the bottle"
2.
Make ridges into by pinching together.  Synonym: crimp.
3.
Make off with belongings of others.  Synonyms: abstract, cabbage, filch, hook, lift, nobble, pilfer, purloin, snarf, sneak, swipe.
4.
Cut the top off.  Synonym: top.
5.
Irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear.  Synonym: vellicate.  "The pain is as if sharp points pinch your back"



Related searches:
pinch bar
pinch hitter
penny-pinch


WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Pinch" Quotes from Famous Books



... in "Swiss Family Robinson," that when they came to a very hard pinch for want of twine or scissors or nails, the mother, Elizabeth, always had it in her "wonderful bag"? I was young enough when I first read "Swiss Family" to be really taken in by this, and to think it magic. Indeed, I supposed the bag to be a lady's work-bag of beads or melon-seeds, ...
— How To Do It • Edward Everett Hale
... round of certifying and reasoning, the shoe still continues to pinch, and the first Judge again appears before the public to help the defect. Altho' he signed Thompson's statement in which he is careful to make use of the language employed by it, and the epithet personal ...
— A Review and Exposition, of the Falsehoods and Misrepresentations, of a Pamphlet Addressed to the Republicans of the County of Saratoga, Signed, "A Citizen" • An Elector
... hope for the credit of women that she did. But you may be morally certain she did nothing of the kind. Girls don't give up all their hopes in life so easily as that. She might think she would do it, because she had read of such things, and thought it was fine, but when it came to the pinch, ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells
... features of the Scheme must not be such as to produce injury to the persons whom we seek to benefit. Mere charity, for instance, while relieving the pinch of hunger, demoralises the recipient; and whatever the remedy is that we employ, it must be of such a nature as to do good without doing evil at the same time. It is no use conferring sixpennyworth of benefit on a man if, at the same time, we do ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth
... of that little pinch of nothing giving us all such a fright," replied Johnny Chuck. ...
— The Burgess Animal Book for Children • Thornton W. Burgess


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