pinch

Meanings

Verb

• To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
• To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
• To squeeze between two objects.
• To steal, usually something inconsequential.
• To arrest or capture.
• To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
• To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
• To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
• To be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.
• To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
• To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
• To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
• To complain or find fault.

Noun

• The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
• A close compression of anything with the fingers.
• A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
• An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
• A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
• An organic herbal smoke additive.
• A magnetic compression of an electrically-conducting filament.
• The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
• An arrest.

Origin

• From Middle English pinchen, from Old French *pinchier, pincer, from Vulgar Latin *pincio ("to puncture, pinch"), from possible merger of *punctio, from Latin punctiō ("a puncture, prick") and *picco, from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną ("to pick, peck, prick").