Pinching

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

  Pinching \Pinch"ing\, a.
     Compressing; nipping; griping; niggardly; as, pinching cold;
     a pinching parsimony.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Pinching bar}, a pinch bar. See {Pinch}, n., 4.
  
     {Pinching nut}, a check nut. See under {Check}, n.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  109 Moby Thesaurus words for "pinching":
     Siberian, abstraction, algid, annexation, appropriation, arctic,
     avaricious, below zero, biting, bitter, bitterly cold, bleak,
     boosting, boreal, brisk, brumal, cheap, cheeseparing, close,
     closefisted, cold, cold as charity, cold as death, cold as ice,
     cold as marble, conversion, conveyance, crisp, cutting, economy,
     economy of assumption, economy of means, elegance, embezzlement,
     filching, fraud, freezing, freezing cold, frigid, frugality, gelid,
     glacial, graft, hardfisted, hibernal, hiemal, hyperborean,
     ice-cold, ice-encrusted, icelike, icy, illiberal, inclement, keen,
     law of parsimony, liberation, lifting, mingy, miserly, narrow,
     near, niggardly, nipping, nippy, numbing, parsimoniousness,
     parsimony, penetrating, penny-pinching, piercing, pilferage,
     pilfering, pinchfisted, pinchpenny, poaching, raw, rigorous,
     save-all, scrimping, scrounging, severe, sharp, shoplifting,
     skimping, sleety, slushy, snappy, snatching, sneak thievery,
     snitching, stealage, stealing, stingy, stinting, stone-cold,
     subzero, supercooled, swindle, swiping, theft, thievery, thieving,
     tight, tightfisted, ungenerous, winterbound, winterlike, wintery,
     wintry