pinch
/pɪnt͡ʃ/ verb B2- 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.
- To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
- To squeeze between two objects.
- Of clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.
- To steal, usually something inconsequential. · Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
- To arrest or capture.
- To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
- To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
He/she/it pinches · Past pinched · Past participle pinched · -ing form pinching
Verb forms
- Base form
- pinch
- He/she/it
- pinches
- Past
- pinched
- Past participle
- pinched
- -ing form
- pinching
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
That’s the pinch.
The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with a little shriek, and went on: “—that begins with an M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness—you know you say things are “much of a muchness”—did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?”
Pinch him!
If he was like you say, maybe the cops pinched him before I got there.”
Other matches
Learn pinch in real texts
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