Pinch

Verb

 * 1) To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
 * 2) To steal, usually of something almost trivial or inconsequential.
 * 3) To arrest or capture.
 * 4)  To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
 * 5)  To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.

Noun

 * 1) The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
 * 2) A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
 * 3) An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
 * 4) *1955, Rex Stout, "Die Like a Dog", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 171:
 * It took nerve and muscle both to carry the body out and down the stairs to the lower hall, but he damn well had to get it out of his place and away from his door, and any of those four could have done it in a pinch, and it sure was a pinch.
 * 1) An organic herbal smoke additive.

Derived terms

 * in a pinch
 * pinchy
 * take with a pinch of salt

Descendants

 * Japanese: ピンチ (pinchi)

Adjectives for Pinch
emphatic; warning; relishing; gentlemanly; record; consecutive (pi); imperial; hurtlng.

Adverbs for Pinch
approvingly;  emphatically;   warningly; playfully; facetiously; cruelly; spitefully; coyly.

Thesaurus
abstract, ace, acute pain, afflict, agonize, ail, alternate, alternative, and, annex, apprehend, apprehension, approach, appropriate, arrest, arrestation, arrestment, atom, backup, bag, bare cupboard, bare subsistence, beat, beat to windward, beggarliness, beggary, begrudge, bind, bit, bite, boost, boring pain, borrow, breakers ahead, burglary, burn, bust, caper, capture, cardhouse, catch, cause for alarm, center, centralize, chafe, charley horse, clamp, clamping, clamping down, climacteric, close, close in, close up, close with, close-haul, clutch, collar, come together, complication, compress, compression, compulsion, concenter, concentralize, concentrate, confine, constraint, contingency, converge, convergence of events, convulse, cop, counterfeit, cramp, cramps, crib, crick, crisis, critical juncture, critical point, crossroads, crucial period, crucify, crunch, crush, crux, cubby, cubbyhole, cut, dab, danger, dangerous ground, darting pain, defraud, deprivation, destitution, difficulty, dilemma, distress, doghouse, dole, dot, dram, dribble, driblet, drive, dummy, dwarf, economize, embarrassing position, embarrassment, embezzle, emergency, empty purse, endangerment, ensphere, equivalent, ersatz, exact, excruciate, exigency, extort, extremity, fake, fall in with, famish, farthing, fester, filch, fine how-do-you-do, fleck, flyspeck, fragment, fret, fulgurant pain, funnel, gall, gaping chasm, gathering clouds, girdle pain, give pain, gnaw, gnawing, gobbet, gouge, grab, grain, granule, grasp, grate, grind, grinding poverty, grip, gripe, griping, groat, grudge, hair, hand-to-mouth existence, handful, harrow, hazard, heist, hell to pay, high pressure, hinge, hitch, hobble, hole, homelessness, hook, hot water, house of cards, how-do-you-do, hurt, imbroglio, imitation, imperativeness, imperilment, impoverishment, impulse, impulsion, indigence, inflame, inflict pain, intersect, iota, irritate, jam, jeopardy, job, joker, jot, jumping pain, kill by inches, kink, knock off, lacerate, lack, lancinating pain, lift, little, little bit, live upon nothing, luff, luff up, make a pinch, make off with, makeshift, martyr, martyrize, meet, menace, mendicancy, mess, minim, minimum, minutiae, mite, mix, mock, modicum, molecule, moneylessness, morass, mote, nab, narrow the gap, necessitousness, necessity, need, neediness, netting, nick, nip, nutshell, ounce, pain, palm, pang, parlous straits, paroxysm, particle, pass, pauperism, pauperization, pebble, penury, peril, phony, pickle, pickup, pierce, pigeonhole, pilfer, pinch pennies, pittance, playhouse, plight, ply, poach, point, predicament, press, pressure, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, prick, privation, prolong the agony, provisional, proxy, pull in, purloin, push, put to torture, quagmire, quicksand, rack, rankle, rash impulse, rasp, reserve, rip-off, risk, rob, robbery, rocks ahead, rub, run away with, run in, run together, rustle, sail fine, save, scamp, scant, scrape, screw, scrimp, scrounge, scruple, secondary, seizure, shake, sharp pain, shoot, shooting, shooting pain, shoplift, skimp, slough, smidgen, smidgin, smitch, snag, snare, snatch, snitch, soupcon, spare, spasm, speck, spoonful, spot, squeeze, squeezing, stab, stabbing pain, starve, steal, stew, sticky wicket, sting, stint, stitch, stopgap, storm clouds, strait, straits, stress, substitute, swamp, swindle, swipe, tad, take, take into custody, taper, taste, temporary, tension, tentative, theft, thieve, thimbleful, thin ice, threat, thrill, throes, tight spot, tight squeeze, tighten, tightening, tightrope, tiny bit, tittle, tormen, torment, torture, touch, touch the wind, tricky spot, trifling amount, trivia, turn, turning, turning point, tweak, twinge, twist, twitch, unholy mess, unite, urge, urgency, utility, vicarious, wad up, walk off with, want, whit, wound, wrench, wring

Etymology
From pinchen:, from  *undefined: (compare  pincer:, pincier:), from  *undefined:, a nasalised variant of  *undefined:, of  origin, from Old  *undefined:, from, from. Cognate with pycan:, pician:,  pikka:,  and  picken:,  pochen:. More at.

Verb

 * Bosnian: uštinuti
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 捏, 掐
 * Czech:
 * Danish:, ,  ,
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:, zwicken


 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 抓る
 * Kurdish: ,
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian: ,
 * Russian: щипать, ущипнуть , прищемлять
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish: çimdiklemek


 * Czech:
 * Danish: hugge,,  nuppe
 * Finnish:


 * Portuguese: Roubar
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: snatta


 * Danish: ,
 * Finnish:
 * French:


 * Italian:
 * Russian: защемлять
 * Swedish:


 * Finnish: leikata, latvoa


 * Finnish: piinata


 * Swedish: pina

Noun

 * Bosnian: štipanje
 * Danish: knib,,  niv
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Italian:


 * Kurdish: ,
 * Portuguese: beliscar
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: nyp


 * Czech:
 * Danish:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Italian:


 * Polish: szczypta
 * Portuguese: pitada (ex: uma pitada de sal)
 * Russian: щепотка, щепоть
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:


 * Finnish:
 * Portuguese: aperto, alhada


 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: