Library / English Dictionary

PINCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of apprehending (especially apprehending a criminal)

Example:

the policeman on the beat got credit for the collar

Synonyms:

apprehension; arrest; catch; collar; pinch; taking into custody

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

capture; gaining control; seizure (the act of forcibly dispossessing an owner of property)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A squeeze with the fingers

Synonyms:

pinch; tweak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

squeeze; squeezing (the act of gripping and pressing firmly)

Derivation:

pinch (irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear)

pinch (squeeze tightly between the fingers)

pinch (make ridges into by pinching together)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small sharp bite or snip

Synonyms:

nip; pinch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

clip; clipping; snip (the act of clipping or snipping)

bite; chomp (the act of gripping or chewing off with the teeth and jaws)

Derivation:

pinch (irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action

Example:

he never knew what to do in an emergency

Synonyms:

emergency; exigency; pinch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

crisis (a crucial stage or turning point in the course of something)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A slight but appreciable amount

Example:

this dish could use a touch of garlic

Synonyms:

hint; jot; mite; pinch; soupcon; speck; tinge; touch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pinch"):

snuff (a pinch of smokeless tobacco inhaled at a single time)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An injury resulting from getting some body part squeezed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

harm; hurt; injury; trauma (any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A painful or straitened circumstance

Example:

the pinch of the recession

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("pinch" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear

Example:

the pain is as if sharp points pinch your back

Synonyms:

pinch; vellicate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "pinch" is one way to...):

irritate (excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Derivation:

pinch (a squeeze with the fingers)

pinch (a small sharp bite or snip)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cut the top off

Example:

top trees and bushes

Synonyms:

pinch; top

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "pinch" is one way to...):

clip; crop; cut back; dress; lop; prune; snip; trim (cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pinch"):

tail (remove the stalk of fruits or berries)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Squeeze tightly between the fingers

Example:

She squeezed the bottle

Synonyms:

nip; pinch; squeeze; tweet; twinge; twitch

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "pinch" is one way to...):

grip (hold fast or firmly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pinch"):

goose (pinch in the buttocks)

tweak (pinch or squeeze sharply)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They pinch the trees

Derivation:

pinch (a squeeze with the fingers)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make ridges into by pinching together

Synonyms:

crimp; pinch

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "pinch" is one way to...):

fold; fold up; turn up (bend or lay so that one part covers the other)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pinch"):

flute (form flutes in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

pinch (a squeeze with the fingers)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make off with belongings of others

Synonyms:

abstract; cabbage; filch; hook; lift; nobble; pilfer; pinch; purloin; snarf; sneak; swipe

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "pinch" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Sentence example:

They pinch the money

Credits

 Context examples: 

And with that he winked and pinched me hard.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And soon afterwards, on the second boy's violently pinching one of the same lady's fingers, she fondly observed, "How playful William is!"

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

You are free also, nephew, and I pray you to take a pinch.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I pinched my arms and sides to awake myself, hoping I might be in a dream.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Does he/she play childish pranks such as pinching or playing "keep away" for the fun of it?

(NPI - Play Childish Pranks, NCI Thesaurus)

Sometimes this malfunction is due to a health problem, such as a spinal cord injury or a pinched nerve in the neck or back.

(Muscle Cramps, NIH)

“A long shot, Watson; a very long shot,” said he, pinching my arm.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These giant bubbles of plasma, or electrified gas, pinch off from the end of a planet's magnetotail - the part of its magnetic field blown back by the Sun like a windsock.

(The ice giant Uranus appears to be losing a bit of its atmosphere to space, NASA)

A measurement for determining the subcutaneous fat layer thickness whereby a pinch of skin approximately five centimeters to the right of the umbilicus is measured using calipers.

(Abdominal Skinfold Thickness, NCI Thesaurus)

He could not find an adequate motive in Mr. Butler's life of pinching and privation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)