| 释义 |
▪ I. pinch, n.|pɪn(t)ʃ|
Forms: see next.
[f. pinch v.]
I.
1. a. An act of pinching; a firm compression between the finger and thumb or any two opposing surfaces; a nip, a squeeze; † a seizure with the teeth, a bite (obs.).
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 49 If we be English Deere be then in blood, Not Rascall-like to fall downe with a pinch. 1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood vi. 75 He will never flinch, To giue a full quart pot the empty pinch. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 298 If thou, and Nature can so gently part, The stroke of death is as a Louers pinch. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. 118 Mr. Neverout's Wit begins to run low, for I vow, he said this before: Pray, Colonel, give him a Pinch. 1836I. Taylor Phys. The. Another Life 238 Feeling the pinch of a tight shoe,..the pinch of a tight hat.
†b. fig. An ill-natured thrust; stricture, censure.
1581Mulcaster Positions xliii. (1887) 271 Those generall pinches, which repining people do vse then most, when they are best vsed.
c. A theft; an act of stealing or plagiarism; something stolen or plagiarized. slang.
1757London Chron. 15–17 Mar. 258/1 They have almost reduced Cheating to a Science; and have affixed technical Terms to each Species; three of which are the Pinch, the Turn, and the Mace. 1812J. H. Vaux Vocab. Flash Lang. in Mem. (1964) 258 This game is called the pinch. 1903‘J. Flynt’ Rise of R. Clowd (1904) i. 64 That was just a pinch that I took. Ibid. 66 One night..on his way home..Ruderick..took a ‘pinch’ too large. 1931G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 146 Pinch,..a small theft. 1965New Statesman 19 Mar. 430/2 The 10-point charter drawn up hurriedly by its ‘brains trust’ during the much publicised Brighton weekend was almost a complete ‘pinch’ of the charter circulated in January by the Medical Practitioners' Union. 1966Melody Maker 7 May 13/4 A pleasant selection of Italian-sung numbers—including what sounds like a Latin pinch from Presley.
d. An arrest or charge; imprisonment. Also transf. slang (orig. U.S.).
1900‘Flynt’ & ‘Walton’ Powers that Prey 81 Told me to tell you't he'd have to make a pinch if you give the wheel another turn. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands viii. 101 Ther Elder was back in er hour, 'n' had me outer pinch ez quick ez could be. 1926[see caper n.2 1 c]. 1939J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xx. 371 Sheriff gets seventy-five cents a day for each prisoner, an' he feeds 'em for a quarter. If he ain't got prisoners, he don't make no profit... This fella today sure looks like he's out to make a pinch one way or another. 1948Sun (Baltimore) 7 Jan. 13/1 If an official sees a violation, he is duty-bound to make the pinch, you might say. There is no compromise. Either it is a foul or it isn't. 1960‘H. Carmichael’ Seeds of Hate xix. 164 Before I make a pinch I like to be reasonably sure that the charge will stick. 1970E. R. Johnson God Keepers (1971) ii. 20 Right now you got a goof-ball pinch... Get your coat on. 1978P. G. Winslow Coppergold 24 More worried about his clobber than the pinch.
2. fig. Pressure, stress (usually of want, misfortune, or the like); difficulty, hardship. Esp. in phr. to feel the pinch.
1605Shakes. Lear ii. iv. 214 Necessities sharpe pinch. 1678Temple Let. to Ld. Treasurer Wks. 1731 II. 469, I am so tired out with this cruel Pinch of Business. 1688More in Norris Theory Love 176 This pinch of time that I am in, has made me but huddle up things together. 1861Times 22 Aug., So much money having been spent... All classes felt the pinch. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 279 Those who were rendered keener by the pinch of hunger. 1892Jessopp Studies Recluse Pref. (1893) 17 He never knew what the pinch of poverty was. 1961New Eng. Bible Luke xv. 14 He had spent it all, when a severe famine fell upon that country and he began to feel the pinch. 1974Nature 11 Jan. 79/1 The industrialised nations are the first to feel the pinch. 1977World of Cricket Monthly June 46/1 Otago are really feeling the pinch.
†3. The pain or pang caused by the grip of death, or of remorse, shame, etc. Obs.
1567R. Edwards Damon & Pithias in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 93 Ne at this present pinch of death am I dismay'd. 1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 77 Sebastian (Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong) Would heere haue kill'd your King. 1642Rogers Naaman 608 No pinch of penalty is comparable to pinch of conscience. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxvi. 451 Have these convictions..brought you to a great pinch, and inward distress of soul?
4. a. A case, occasion, or time of special stress or need; a critical juncture; a strait, exigency, extremity. Now, usually, in phr. at (in, on) a pinch.
1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. xviii. 53 Corageously at a pynche [he] shal renne vpon hem. 1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 164/2 What would ye than haue done? Quod he ye put me nowe to a pynche. 1574J. Dee in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 39 Any notable benefit..bestowed uppon me now in the very pynch and opportunytie. 1589Marprel. Epit. B iij b, If I had thought they would driue me to suche pinches, I would not haue medled with them. a1659Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. iii. 40 The Israelites..send to hire the King of Egypt..to help at a pinch. 1681Nevile Plato Rediv. 264 But that Apprehension appeared Groundless when it came to the pinch. 1789Burke Corr. (1844) III. 89 [We are] without our cook, but the dairy-maid is not a bad hand at a pinch. 1821M. Edgeworth Let. 9 Nov. (1971) 259 Even her humor would on a pinch submit to her sense of duty. 1847Ld. G. Bentinck in Croker Papers (1884) III. xxv. 146, I think on a pinch my father could still walk ten miles in a day. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability 56 Each of them could at a pinch stand in the shoes of the other. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. v. (1872) VIII. 183 Fighting fellows all,..but uncertain as to loyalty in a case of pinch. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 339 She could..drive a team on a pinch. 1903Booklovers' Mag. Dec. 582, I have seen her tend bar in a pinch. 1936C. Sandburg People, Yes 67 People lie in a pinch, hating to do it. 1943H. Read Politics of Unpolitical i. 6 It has always been recognized that a king might easily degenerate into a tyrant, but his natural life is limited and can at a pinch be artificially shortened. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iv. 88 It could carry two passengers easily, three at a pinch, or four in a crisis. 1977Belfast Tel. 17 Jan. 13/1 The Beetle cabriolet is a four-seater which can take five at a pinch.
b. The critical or crucial point of a matter.
1639Fuller Holy War ii. v. (1840) 54 The chief pinch of the cause lieth on the patriarch's proof, that the lands..formerly belonged to his predecessors. 1720Waterland Eight Serm. Pref. 40 Here indeed lies the very Pinch of the Argument. 1846Grote Greece ii. vi. II. 457 Those two attributes which form the real mark and pinch of Spartan legislation, viz., the military discipline and the rigorous private training.
5. The critical (highest or lowest) point of the tide, the turn of the tide. Cf. pinch v. 13, and pinch-water in pinch-. ? Obs. rare.
1793Smeaton Edystone L. §260, I took an opportunity at pinch of low water to view the works upon the rock.
6. local. The game of hustle-cap: see quots.
1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pinch, the game of pitch-halfpenny or pitch and hustle. It is played by two or more antagonists, who pitch or cast a halfpenny each, at a mark... When they hustle, all the half-pence..are thrown into a hat held by the player who claims the first chance. After shaking them together, he hits the crown of the hat a smart blow with his fist, which causes them to jerk out, and as many as lie with the..head upwards belong to him. 1888Sheffield Gloss. s.v., Some colliers were lately fined..for playing at pinch on Sunday.
7. slang. Something easy to accomplish or attain; a certainty.
1886–96in Farmer & Henley Slang (1902) V. 205/2 The race would be a pinch, Sir, barring accident or spill. 1899‘G. G.’ Winkles vi. 72 Harkaway for the Scurry Handicap at Landown, good, a ‘pinch’; go nap on it! 1903A. M. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise xii. 280 Sustained by the conviction that he had made his match a ‘pinch’ indeed.
II. A place or part at which something is (or appears to be) pinched.
†8. Archery. A weakened place in a bow or stick at which it tends to bend in an angle as if pinched at this point. (See pinch v. 1 c.) Obs.
1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 114 If you..fynde a bowe that is..not marred with..freate or pynche, bye that bowe. Ibid. 120 Freates be fyrst little pinchese, the whych when you perceaue, pike the places about the pinches, to make them somewhat weker, and as well commynge as where it pinched.
†9.
a. A pleat or gather, in a skirt, etc.; an accordion-pleat.
b. A bend or fold in the brim of a hat; a cock. (See cock n.6 3.) Obs.
1593Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 146 It is not your pinches, your purles, your floury iaggings, superfluous enterlacings, and puffings vp, that can any way offend God. 1595Gosson Pl. Quippes 87 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 254 This cloth of price, all cut in ragges,..These buttons, pinches, fringes, jagges. 1712Steele Spect. No. 432 ⁋2 Hats moulded into different Cocks and Pinches. 1860J. P. Kennedy W. Wirt. I. i. 20 This picture may remind us of Hogarth's ‘Politician’, with ‘the pinch’ so far projecting that the candle burns a hole through it.
10. A steep or difficult part of a road. Also, a steep hill. Now chiefly dial., Austral., and N.Z.
1754Washington Let. Writ. 1889 I. 63 Wagons may travel now with 1500 or 1800 weight on them, by doubling the teams at one or two pinches only. 1759Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 III. 401 Making the road thirty feet wide, and the principal pinches twenty. 1848H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Austral. xii. 126 As we approached the end of our journey we came to one or two ‘pinches’, which is the colonial term for steep hills. 1862J. S. Dobie S. Afr. Jrnl. (1945) 30 At an ugly pinch of boulders we had another stick up. 1893Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 4 Stony pinches and deep gulleys. 1898Longman's Mag. Nov. 51 Shepherd Robbins shambling slowly down the steep ‘pinch’ of road that led to the farm gate. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career xxvi. 220 Don't push him too quickly up that pinch by Flea Creek, or he might drop dead with you. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xv. 253 She..could carry him up pinches so steep that no amateur could have sat on at such an angle. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Aug. 162 [inset] The steep pinches and faces take their toll of injuries and deaths.
11. Mining. A point at which a mineral vein is narrowed in or compressed by the walls of rock. Also, in Geol., a similar narrowing of any stratum; freq. in phr. pinch and swell. Cf. pinch-out.
1873J. H. Beadle Undevel. West 333 All the strange terms in mining parlance: ‘true lodes, fissure-veins, pinches,..variations and sinuosities’. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 234 The north shoot seems to be divided by a vertical pinch. 1916F. H. Lahee Field Geol. vi. 140 That the country rock was warm and plastic enough to be deformed by the force of intrusion is suggested by the pinch-and-swell form of many pegmatite dikes in schists. 1955Jrnl. Geol. LXIII. 520/1 The pinch-and-swell structure so commonly developed in conformable pegmatites and quartz veins. 1972L. E. Weiss Minor Struct. Deformed Rocks 15 Structures closely related to boudins also formed in progressively extended layers are..‘pinch and swell’ structures or ‘necks’.
12. Electronics. (See quot. 1973.)
1941A. V. Eastman Fund. Vacuum Tubes (ed. 2) ii. 22 All the electrodes are supported by wires held in a glass ‘pinch’ at the base of the tube and by a mica disk at the top. 1954Electronic Engin. XXVI. 16/1 Electrical leakage may be due to..getter on the pinch and micas of the valve. 1973Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) i. vi. 19 Pinch, a flat fused glass seal forming part of the foot through which pass the leads from the electrodes to the pins in the base.
13. Physics. A cylindrical or toroidal plasma confined by the pinch effect.
1951Proc. Physical Soc. B. LXIV. 161 The discharge becomes brighter when it is contracted, and the brightness and sharpness of the ‘pinch’ increase with decrease in pressure. 1966F. I. Boley Plasmas ii. 38 The kink instability of the plasma pinch..is an example of a large class of instability phenomena that is important to the dynamics of plasma. 1971Nature 16 July 152/2 Research on high beta toroidal confinement is still in an early stage as groups previously working on linear theta pinches move into the field.
14. with a pinch of salt (fig.): see salt n.1 2 d.
III. 15. As much of something (esp. snuff) as may be taken up with the tips of the finger and thumb; hence fig. a very small quantity.
1583Greene Mamilla Wks. (Grosart) II. 81 For a pince of pleasure we receiue a gallon of sorow. 1712Steele Spect. No. 344 ⁋2 Flavilla..asked the Churchwarden if he would take a Pinch [of Snuff]. 1724Thomson Let. 11 Dec. in Sotheby's Catal. 19–22 Feb. (1896) 86, Had I been taught to cut a caper, to hum a tune, to take a pinch and lisp nonsense with all the grace of fashionable stupidity. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Old Age, Two Pinches of the Tops of Rosemary, a Pinch of Laurel Leaves, two Pinches of Hysop. 1833H. Martineau Manch. Strike v. 61 Rowe took a long pinch of snuff. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxvi, A little more hot water, and a pinch of fresh tea.
IV.
16. An iron lever with a beak or point, used for moving heavy bodies, loosening coal, etc., by leverage or prizing; a crow-bar; a pinch-bar.
1816Scott Bl. Dwarf ix, Pinches or forehammers will never pick upon't,..ye might as weel batter at it wi' pipe-staples. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 190 Here scores their pinches and their picks Atween the ashlar stanes did fix. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Pinch, a kind of crowbar used in breaking down coal.
17. dial. A close-fisted person; a ‘screw’.
a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pinch, a very parsimonious economist.
▪ II. pinch, v.|pɪn(t)ʃ|
Forms: 4–6 pinche(n, pynche(n, (4–5 pinnche, 6 pyntche, pynshe, pench(e, Sc. pinsche), 6–7 pynch, 6– pinch. β. (rarely) 6 pinse, 7–8 pince.
[a. ONF. *pinchier (in mod.Normand pincher), 3 sing. pr. pinche, = OF. pincier, mod.F. pincer; ulterior origin obscure.
The Fr. vb. was perh. nasalized from an earlier form repr. by Walloon pissî: cf. obs. It. picciare, Venet. dial. pizzare, mod.It. pizzicare to pinch, Sp. pizca a pinch; also early mod.Du. pitsen, Flem. pinssen (Kilian), Ger. pfetzen to pinch.]
I. In literal and closely connected senses.
1. a. trans. To compress between the tips of the finger and thumb, with the teeth, etc., or with any instrument having two jaws or parts between which something may be grasped; to nip, squeeze. (The principal literal sense.) Also absol. or intr.
1340–70Alex. & Dind. 751 But bochours ben þei echon, ȝour body to dismembre, & euerich pinchen his part. 1495Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. v. xxxviii. (W. de W.) 153 Yf the mete pytchyth and pryckyth, the stomake is pynchyd and prycked and compellyth it to passe out. 1530Palsgr. 657/2, I pynche a thynge with my fyngar and my thombe. 1581Mulcaster Positions xliii. (1887) 272 To pinch the heele where they pricke at the head. a1628Preston Saint's Daily Exerc. (1629) 119 A swine that is pinched..will cry exceeding loud. 1750Gray Long Story 59 They..Rummage his Mother, pinch his Aunt. 1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 44 The creature was scarcely able to withdraw its legs when the toes were pinched. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. iv. 115 If the legs be pinched..the muscles are made to contract.
β1799W. Taylor Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry (1830) II. 65 That blacksmith, Who on his wall had drawn the arch⁓devil's picture, And us'd to pince at it with glowing tongs.
b. Said of a tight shoe, etc. which presses painfully upon the part which it covers; esp. in the proverbial phrase to know where the shoe pinches, i.e. to know (by direct experience) the disadvantages of any situation, or the cause of a trouble or difficulty. (Usually absol. or intr.)
1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 8253 Thys glouys byndë me so sore, That I may weryn hem no more, With her pynchyng to be bounde, Myn handys ben so tendre. 1573–80Baret Alv. P 377 My shooe..pincheth my foote. a1580G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 85 Subtle enemyes, that knowe..where the shooe pinchith us most. 1637Heywood Dialogues ii. Wks. 1874 VI. 121 When you pull on your shoo you best may tel In what part it doth chiefely pinch you. 1658A. Fox Würtz' Surg. ii. xxv. 163 Fit the splinters well..that they pinch not the Patient any where. c1720Prior Phillis's Age ii, Stiff in brocade, and pinch'd in stays. 1856Reade Never too late lv, Oh, is that where the shoe pinches?
†c. intr. for refl. Of a bow: To receive a pinch: see pinch n. 8 Obs.
1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 116 Take your bow in to the feeld,..looke where he commethe moost, prouyde for that place betymes, leste it pinche and so freate. Ibid. 121.
d. pass. To be jammed or compressed forcibly between two solid objects so as to be crushed.
1896J. E. Jeaffreson in Westm. Gaz. 4 Aug. 5/1 We have lost our walrus boat... She was pinched on shore in the land water on July 16,..by the heavy pack ice. 1899Ibid. 29 Mar. 5/3 The chap that had it before me got pinched between the coupling hooks..he only lived a few hours. 1899Daily News 11 Oct. 8/5 He was pinched between the train and the platform.
2. a. With adv. or compl. To bring or get into some state or position by pinching (in first two quots., by squeezing or pressing).
13..S. Erkenwolde 70 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 267 Wyȝt werkemen..Putten prises þer to, pinchid one vnder. a1425Langland's P. Pl. A. ix. 88 A pyk is in þe potent to punge [Univ. Coll. MS. pynche] a-doun þe wikkede. 1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 241/1 Let them keepe straite, and pinch in their shoulders. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 194 They'll sucke our breath, or pinch vs blacke and blew. 1645Fuller Good Th. in Bad T. (1841) 23 Pinch me into the remembrance of my promises. 1799G. Smith Laboratory (ed. 6) I. 28 Pinch their ends close. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 676 The skin cannot now be pinched up.
b. Hort. To nip off part of (a shoot). Also to nip out; to shorten back or down by nipping.
1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 16 When the Branch so Pinch'd proves obstinate in shooting thick again, the same Operation of Pinching must be perform'd again. 1850Beck's Florist May 129 When the shoots have grown three or four inches..I again pinch out their tops, in order to make them bushy. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. iv. xxi. (ed. 2) 490 As soon as six leaves were developed on any shoot they were pinched down to three. 1890Farmer's Gaz. 4 Jan. 7/1 When [the shoots] are three or four inches long they are pinched back to three buds.
c. To force out by compression, squeeze out; in quots. fig. to extract, extort, wring, ‘squeeze’ (money) from or out of a person.
1770Massie Reas. agst. Tax on Malt 10 The Money..must be pinched from the bellies and backs of labouring Families. 1822Cobbett Weekly Reg. 13 Apr. 69 The immense sums, thus pinched from the millions, and put into the hands of thousands. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. xiii, He had always pinched the full interest out of himself with punctual pinches.
d. To put in or add by pinches (pinch n. 11); pinch empty, to empty by removing the contents by pinches.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 84 The old dames..pinch the snuff-box empty by degrees. 1859Tennyson Vivien 608 Pinch a murderous dust into her drink.
e. to pinch off: intr., to undergo a localized constriction that progresses until separation into two portions occurs; to become separate in this way; also trans., to detach in this way.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 106 The ordinary Rack..is for men to pinch off the Flesh with hot Pinsers. 1910Jrnl. Morphol. XXI. 278 (caption) Megakaryocyte showing a platelet in process of pinching off from a pseudopod. Ibid., Various phases are shown in the process of pinching off portions of the cytoplasm of the thrombocytes to form blood platelet-like corpuscles. 1952[see pinch-off]. 1956Essays in Crit. VI. 10 Science begins to appear in the odd role of being pinched off and occupying the lonely end of a polar opposition to religion. 1956L. P. Hunter Handbk. Semiconductor Electronics iv. 29 If the bias on the gate is high enough, the depletion region of the encircling PN junction becomes thick enough to ‘pinch off’ the channel through which the working current flows. 1956Jrnl. Biophysical & Biochem. Cytol. II. Suppl. 107 The invaginated membrane is pinched off, resulting in the formation of an intracellular vacuole. 1959Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. XXXVIII. 777 If sufficiently high voltage is applied, the channel will ‘pinch off’ and its current will essentially saturate. 1962Science Survey III. 170 The living endothelial cell has almost nothing in its cytoplasm but masses of tiny smooth vesicles pinching-off and opening at the cell surfaces. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. X. 233/1 Once the process starts, the pressure at a narrow neck in the ring of fused metal is able to squeeze out the fluid metal until the neck pinches off completely, cutting off the current. 1979Nature 11 Jan. 91/1 One suggestion has been made that the clathrin physically pinches off a membrane vesicle.
†3. trans. To pleat, gather in, or flute the surface of (a garment, etc.); to crimp or crinkle the edge of (a pie-crust). Obs.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 151 Fful semyly hir wympul pynched was. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 410 So wyde a gowne..as is þin, So smal I-pynchid. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 41 Kover hit [the chopped-up pork, etc.] with lyddes, and pynche hit fayre, Korven in þe myddes two loyseyns a payr. 1509–10[see pinched ppl. a. 3].
†4. To seize, compress, or snap with the teeth. Often absol. Obs.
c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxv, Who pyncheth firste and goth þerwith to þe deth, he shall haue þe skynne. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. i. 16 As a Beare, encompass'd round with Dogges: Who hauing pincht a few, and made them cry, The rest stand all aloofe. c1611Chapman Iliad v. 462 Like a sort of dogs that at a lion bay, And entertain no spirit to pinch. 1700Dryden Theodore & Hon. 115 Two mastiffs..came up and pinch'd her tender side.
†5. Said of actions causing a painful bodily sensation: To hurt, pain, torture, torment. (In first two quots. applied to the torture of the rack.) Obs.
1536Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 30 Not sparing for the knowleage hereof to pynche him with paynes to the declaracion of it. 1587Fleming Contn. Holished III. 1371/1 They were constreined to commit him to such as are vsuallie appointed in the Tower to handle the racke, by whome he was laied vpon the same, and somewhat pinched, although not much. 1597J. T. Serm. Paules C. 11 Which pincheth man with three great wounds. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 364 If it [a Dart] pinch them further, and draw bloud, they increase their punishment.
6. Said of the painful action of cold, hunger, exhaustion, or wasting disease: including the physical effects (to contract, make thin or shrunken), the painful physical sensations, and often the mental affliction or social injury. Also, in reference to plants: to nip, to cause to shrivel or wither up.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 48 If famine had not pinched them, or colde wether had not nipped them. 1577St. Aug. Manual (Longman) 30 Let fastynges forepine the body,..let labour pinche it. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 913 If he be a little pinched with pouertie & aduersitie. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. iv. 160 The ayre hath..pinch'd the lilly-tincture of her face. 1652A. Ross Hist. World i. iii. 13 His army being pinched with thirst. a1661Fuller Worthies, Glouc. (1662) 349 The most generous and vigorous land will..be imbarrened, when always pinched with the Plough. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 22 A most severe cold which pinched our men exceedingly. 1772Foote Nabob ii. Wks. 1799 II. 303 The polyanthuses were a little pinched by the easterly winds. 1884Fortn. Rev. Jan. 2 The labouring classes..have been pinched..by hard times, by increased expenses, and by loss of wages.
absol.1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. §43. 260 When a famine begins to pinch. 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 548 The winter pinches, and with cold I die.
II. In non-physical and figurative senses.
7. a. To press upon, straiten, reduce to straits or distress; to bring into difficulties or trouble; to afflict, harass. Obs. exc. as consciously fig. from 1 or 6.
1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xiv. 127 To the ende they myght bee worse pynched at the herte roote. 1577F. de L'isle's Legendarie H ij, The proposition of the lord Bretagne..did chiefly pinch them. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq., Apol. 515 That no consciencious man may be pinched thereby. 1724De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 215 The king finding his affairs pinch him at home. 1800Coleridge Piccolom. i. xii, His compact with me pinches The Emperor. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. ii. ix, Debt pinches the mind, more than hunger pinches the body.
β1630M. Godwyn tr. Bp. Hereford's Ann. Eng. i. 49 Need began at length to pince him.
b. intr. or absol.
c1611Chapman Iliad viii. 278 Huge grief, for Hector's slaughter'd friend, pinch'd in his mighty mind. 1657Cromwell Sp. 20 Apr. in Carlyle, Another thing which doth a little pinch upon me. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull ii. iii, Don Diego. Pray tell me, how you came to employ this Sir Roger..and not think of your old friend Diego? Mrs. Bull. So, so, there it pinches!
†8. intr. To press narrowly or closely on:
a. to encroach on;
b. to put stress upon. Obs.
a1300Sat. People Kildare xvi. in E.E.P. (1862) 155 Hail be ȝe bakers witþ ȝur louis smale..ȝe pincheþ on þe riȝt white aȝen goddes law. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 371 Ȝif I ȝede to þe plow, I pynched so narwe [C. on hus half acre] Þat a fote londe or a forwe, fecchen I wolde, Of my nexte neighbore. 1563Homilies ii. Rogation Week iv. (1859) 498 It is a shame to behold..how men pinch at such bierbalks, which by long use and custom ought to be inviolably kept. 1685H. More Paralip. Prophet. xliv. 375 The Visions indeed at last pinch closest upon the Roman Hierarchy. a1734North Exam. iii. vi. §47 (1740) 457, I should haue pinched hard upon this Practice, if it had not been a Push-pin Game.
†9.
a. intr. To carp or cavil at; to find fault, object. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 347 We mai not pynche at þis lawe. c1386Chaucer Prol. 326 Ther koude no wight pynchen at his writyng. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas iii. v. (1554) 74 b, If any man pyntche at their outrage. 1549Latimer 5th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 140 Euerye waye thys offyce of preachynge is pyncht at.
†b. trans. To find fault with, blame, reproach, reprove. Obs.
1570T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. (1853) 218 So as he..blot them [not] with stain or infamy, but pinch them and reprove them only with suspicion of their own conscience. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. xiii. §9 The Corinthians hee pincheth with this demand.
10.
†a. intr. To give or spend very sparingly and narrowly; to be close-fisted, meanly parsimonious, or miserly; to drive hard bargains. Obs.
13..Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1243 That on was..Lef to give, an lef to spende; And that other lef to pinche. Bothe he was scars, and chinche. 1406Hoccleve Misrule 181, I pynchid nat at hem in myn acate, But paied hem as þat they axe wolde. 1530Palsgr. 657/2 He pyncheth as though he were nat worthe a grote. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 3 Ane hes that micht ane hundreith weill susteine and livis in vo and pinschis at his tabill. a1617Hieron Wks. I. 217 They pinch with the Lord, as Ananias.
b. trans. To limit or restrict narrowly the supply of (anything); to stint, to give barely or with short measure or weight; to give sparingly or grudgingly. Now dial., exc. in phr. to pinch pennies (or pinch a penny): to be penny-pinching or parsimonious.
1530Proper Dyaloge in Rede me, etc. (Arb.) 169 Let him ones begynne to pynche Or withdrawe their tithinge an ynche. 1561Norton & Sackv. Gorboduc ii. i, If nature and the Goddes had pinched so Their flowing bountie and their noble giftes..from you. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xiii. 305 If ever she affordeth fine ware, she alwayes pincheth it in the measure. 1675Hobbes Odyssey xi. 332 Do not pinch your Gift. 1695in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 320 They are not to pinch the water from the faw-well. a1906Mod. Sc. Ye needna hae pincht the water; it's cheap aneuch ony way. Dinna pinch the elbow-grease. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xix. 152 The surly Monsieur Salmon..complaining and pinching pennies as he made his purchases. 1962J. D. MacDonald Key to Suite (1968) iii. 40 I'm not about to pinch a penny on a thing like this. 1973J. Cleary Ransom xi. 255 ‘This city is too expensive for a cop on my pay. Especially when it almost cost me my wife, too.’ ‘He's always pinching pennies,’ said Lisa.
c. To straiten or stint (a person, etc.) in, in respect of, for (something), or in means generally; to subject (any one) to short measure.
1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 220 Yet will I not pinch you of that pastime. 1591Greene Disc. Coosnage (1592) 25 She cald in her neighbors..that..had also been pincht in their coles, and shewed them the cosenage. 1596Bp. W. Barlow Three Serm. ii. 78 Couetouslie pinching their Tables and almes. 1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 199 Those in the Frigat were already pinched with spare allowance. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 121 Either pinch them of a great part, or give them that which is nastie. 1676Moxon Print Lett. 10 You are pinched for room. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. i. §8 Was I not pinched in Time, the regular way would be to have begun with the Circumstantials of Religion. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. vii, My wife..insisted on entertaining them all; for which..our family was pinched for three weeks after. 1784Cowper Let. to J. Newton Feb., I am at this moment pinched for time. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 19 The error of pinching children in their food is more hurtful than the other extreme. 1876F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow II. xiv. 223 She wasn't used to be pinched for money herself. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan i. ii. 211 Some debts..he had to pay, Which pinched us for a while.
d. intr. in refl. or pass. sense. To pinch oneself or be pinched; to be straitened in means; to suffer from penury.
1549Cheke Hurt Sedit. (1641) 35 When yee see decay of victuals, the rich pinch, the poore famish. 1634Heywood Maidenhead Lost ii. i. Wks. 1874 IV. 121, I told you, you were so prodigall we should pinch for't. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. 184 I'm forc'd to pinch, for the Times are hard. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 11/2 Made merry..the whole week through, to pinch for it a fortnight after.
11. a. trans. To compress, confine, or restrict narrowly. Now rare or Obs.
1570Dee Math. Pref. d iv b, No more than we may pinche in the Definitions of Wisedome or Honestie. 1633G. Herbert Temple, Decay iii, Thou dost thy self immure..In some one corner of a feeble heart: Where yet both Sinne and Satan..Do pinch and straiten thee. a1677Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 II. 23 That doctrine which pincheth our liberty within so narrow bounds. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Cockayne Wks. (Bohn) II. 65 The same insular limitation pinches his foreign politics.
b. To reduce to straits (in argument, etc.); to bring into a difficulty or ‘fix’; to ‘put in a tight place’. Now rare.
1692Ray Disc. i. iv. (1693) 59 When we are at a loss, and pinch't with an Argument. 1752G. Brown in Scots Mag. Nov. (1753) 559/2 The prosecutors are pinched in point of argument. a1832Scott in Smiles Self-Help iii. (1860) 60, I have felt pinched and hampered by my own ignorance.
c. to pinch courtesy: see courtesy 1 c.
III. In technical and slang uses.
12. a. Racing. To urge or press (a horse); to exhaust by urging.
1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 148 It is the vulgar Opinion, that a Horse has not been pinch'd, or pinn'd down, in a Heat when he does not sweat out. Ibid. 149 If a Horse's Tail shake and tremble after any Heat, it is a Sign he is hard pinch'd. 1864Daily Tel. 10 June, He declined to make an effort when ‘pinched’ by his jockey.
b. Naut. To sail (a vessel) close-hauled.
1895Daily News 11 Sept. 5/5 Defender had to be pinched to make the mark before she started on the stern chase. Ibid., Captain Cranfield was pinching Valkyrie hard, but she..was..unable to keep as close into the wind as her rival. 1898Ibid. 19 Sept. 3/5 While the Maid was pinched right through Irex had to make no less than three boards.
13. intr. Of the tide: To pass its highest or lowest level. (Cf. pinch n. 5.) rare. ? Obs.
1756Phil. Trans. XLIX. 532 As soon as the tide pinched, the ebb came down at once.
14. intr. Mining. Of a vein or deposit of ore: To contract in volume, become narrow or thin; with out, to come to an end, ‘run out’. Also, in Geol., said of strata generally; also with down. Cf. lens v.
1867J. A. Phillips Mining & Metallurgy Gold & Silver iv. 56 The lode, which is eight feet wide on the north side of the Eureka, pinches out very rapidly in that direction. 1872Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 307 The vein is 5 or 6 feet wide, on an average, but expanding sometimes to 15 or 20 feet, and pinching up in places to a few inches. Ibid., The body of rich ore worked last year..was exhausted, the ledge pinching out. 1890Goldfields Victoria 27 The characteristic of this district..is for the auriferous surface quartz to pinch or run out. 1891M. Cole Cy Ross 93 The vein began suddenly to pinch last week..the vein is steadily pinching narrower and narrower as we advance. 1916F. H. Lahee Field Geol. ix. 240 Sometimes strata are irregularly thinned and thickened so that they ‘pinch and swell’, as seen in cross section. 1923Ibid. (ed. 2) v. 88 If a stratum continues to thin out in a certain direction,..it may finally ‘pinch out’ or ‘lens out’ altogether. 1928W. A. Chalfont Outposts of Civilization 82 High-grade veins were followed as they pinched down, even to half inch seams which were profitably ‘spooned out’. 1945Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXIX. 1563 The reservoir bed must pinch out in all updip directions. 1961Jrnl. Geol. LXIX. 339/1 The layered marine sediments pinch out to the south.
15. trans.
a. To steal, to purloin (a thing); to rob (a person). slang.
1656Witty Rogue Arraigned xxi. 30 Pinch'd the Cully of a Casket of Jewels. 1673R. Head Canting Acad. 191 The fifth is a Glasier, who when he creeps in: To pinch all the Lurry, he thinks it no sin. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Pinch, to Steal, or Slily convey any thing away. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., I pinch'd him for a fawney, signifies I purloined a ring from him; Did you pinch anything in that crib? did you succeed in secreting any thing in that shop? 1869Daily News 10 Aug., Brown was..alleged, in sporting phrase, to have ‘pinched’ the defendant out of 6l. 10s. 1900[see commandeer v. c]. 1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement ix. 474 Buying cars that have been pinched like that is a mug's game. 1936[see fat n.2 2 d]. 1969Listener 24 July 103/2 ‘This was by car I take it—was there petrol?’ ‘Well, we somehow managed to pick it up.’ ‘You mean pinch it?’ 1979‘C. Brand’ Rose in Darkness xiii. 189 You simply pinched it from a shop.
b. To arrest, take into custody. [So F. pincer ‘arrêter, saisir’ (Littré).]
1837Sessions Papers Cent. Criminal Court 4 Dec. 157 D―d if I'm not pinched for housebreaking at last. 1860Slang Dict., Pinch..to catch, or apprehend. 1862Mayhew Lond. Labour (1865) III. 397 He got acquitted for that there note after he had me ‘pinched’. 1882Five Yrs.' Penal Servitude iii. 109 The blooming crushers were precious glad when they ‘pinched’ him. 1925H. L. Foster Trop. Tramp with Tourists 41 A traffic policeman had stopped us. But not to pinch us for speeding. 1932T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes 28 These fellows always get pinched in the end. 1938[see guy v.4]. 1955Times 12 Aug. 5/4 He explained that Heard gave him the tobacco and then put in another officer to ‘pinch’ him. 1979N. Hynd Fake Flags iv. 25 Nobody knew what night Vasiliev was going to be pinched.
16. To move (a heavy body, as a loaded truck, a large cask) by a succession of small heaves with a pointed iron bar or ‘pinch’: see pinch n. 16.
1859[see pinching vbl. n. 5]. 1888Whitby Gaz. 28 Apr. 4/4, I was engaged in pinching a bogie which was loaded with a ball of slag. 1895T. Pinnock Black Country Ann. (E.D.D.), Gie me the bar, I'll pinch it forrat a bit while yo' restin'. |