pinch

Etymology

From Middle English pinchen, from Old Northern French *pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”)), a word of uncertain origin, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pinciāre (“to puncture, pinch”), from a merger of *punctiāre (“to puncture, sting”), from Latin punctiō (“a puncture, prick”) and *piccāre (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). More at point, pick and pitch.

verb

1. To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
   The children were scolded for pinching each other.
   This shoe pinches my foot.
2. To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
   He took the plate in his hand, holding it between thumb and forefinger at one corner, letting it hang down. With the other hand he pinched it at the opposite corner, pressing thumb and forefinger together tightly. 2014, Harlan Ellison, Paingod and Other Delusions
3. To squeeze between two objects.
   Since the resistance of the channel is inversely proportional to its width, the most resistive region is the one pinched between the gates where they come closest to each other. 2012, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Physics of Nanostructured Solid State Devices, page 446
4. (intransitive) Of clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.
   With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention While queueing for sarnies at the office canteen. 1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull
5. (slang, transitive) To steal, usually something inconsequential.
   Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
   Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years. May 13, 2012, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
6. (slang, transitive) To arrest or capture.
7. (horticulture) To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
8. (nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
9. (hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
10. (obsolete, intransitive) To be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.
    1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
11. (of animals) To seize; to grip; to bite.
12. (figurative) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
    to be pinched for money
    The Christian also spurns the pinched and mumping sick-room attitude, and the lives of saints are full of a kind of callousness to diseased conditions of body which probably no other human records show. 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2
13. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
14. (obsolete) To complain or find fault.
    Therefore who so them accuse Of any double entencion, To speake, rowne, other to muse, To pinch at their condicion, All is but false collusion, I dare rightwell the sothe express, They have no better protection, 1809, Alexander Chalmers ed. The Works of the English Poets, from Cahucer to Cowper, Vol. 1, modern rendering of poem imputed to Geoffrey Chaucer, "A Ballad which Chaucer made in Praise or rather Dispraise of Women for their Doubleness"

noun

1. The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
2. A close compression of anything with the fingers.
   I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.
3. A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
   Mix about four cups of white flour with a pinch of salt.
4. An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
   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. 1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, page 171
5. A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
6. An organic herbal smoke additive.
7. (physics) A magnetic compression of an electrically-conducting filament.
8. The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
   It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds. 2001, Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
9. (slang) An arrest.