Pinched

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pinch \Pinch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Pinched}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Pinching}.] [F. pincer, probably fr. OD. pitsen to pinch;
     akin to G. pfetzen to cut, pinch; perhaps of Celtic origin.
     Cf. {Piece}.]
     1. To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers,
        between teeth or claws, or between the jaws of an


        instrument; to squeeze or compress, as between any two
        hard bodies.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. to seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
                                                    --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To plait. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Full seemly her wimple ipinched was.  --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to
        starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. --Sir W.
                                                    Raleigh.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a
        pinch. See {Pinch}, n., 4.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift. [Slang]
        --Robert Barr.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     7. to catch; to arrest (a criminal).
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pinched
       adj 1: sounding as if the nose were pinched; "a whining nasal
              voice" [syn: {adenoidal}, {nasal}]
       2: very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold;
          "emaciated bony hands"; "a nightmare population of gaunt
          men and skeletal boys"; "eyes were haggard and cavernous";
          "small pinched faces"; "kept life in his wasted frame only
          by grim concentration" [syn: {bony}, {cadaverous}, {emaciated},
           {gaunt}, {haggard}, {skeletal}, {wasted}]
       3: not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: {hard
          up}, {impecunious}, {in straitened circumstances(p)}, {penniless},
           {penurious}]
       4: as if squeezed uncomfortably tight; "her pinched toes in her
          pointed shoes were killing her"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  83 Moby Thesaurus words for "pinched":
     attenuated, badly off, cadaverous, careworn, clamped, compressed,
     concentrated, condensed, consolidated, constricted, contracted,
     corpselike, cramped, desperate, distressed, down to bedrock, drawn,
     emacerated, emaciate, emaciated, embarrassed, feeling the pinch,
     haggard, hard pressed, hard up, hollow-eyed, ill off, impecunious,
     in Queer Street, in desperate straits, in extremis, in extremities,
     in narrow circumstances, in reduced circumstances,
     in straitened circumstances, jejune, knitted, land-poor, marantic,
     marasmic, narrow, nipped, on the edge, out of pocket, peaked,
     peaky, pinched-in, poor, poorly off, puckered, puny, pursed,
     reduced, short, short of cash, short of funds, short of money,
     shriveled, skeletal, solidified, sorely pressed, squeezed, starved,
     starveling, straitened, strangled, strangulated, strapped, tabetic,
     tabid, underfed, undernourished, unmoneyed, unprosperous,
     up against it, wasp-waisted, wasted, weazeny, withered, wizened,
     worn, wraithlike, wrinkled