pinch
/pɪnt͡ʃ/verb, noun
pinch is a verb meaning “To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-I-N-C-H and has one syllable, and it appears 5.8 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does pinch mean?
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.
- 2
To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
- 3
To squeeze between two objects.
- 4
Of clothing, to be uncomfortably tight in specific spots.
- 5
slangTo steal, usually something inconsequential.
Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
- 6
slangTo arrest or capture.
- 7
To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
- 8
To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
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.
- 5
A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
- 6
An organic herbal smoke additive.
- 7
A magnetic compression of an electrically conducting filament.
- 8
The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce pinch?
- /pɪnt͡ʃ/
Pinch has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pinch.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pinch
- pinches present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- pinching participle, present
- pinched participle, past
- θ-pinches plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is pinch?
Pinch appears 5.8 times per million words in written English, the 10,196th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Pinch in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pincer , chiper , pincement , pincée |
| German | kneifen, zwicken , stehlen, abpressen, entwenden , schnappen |
| Portuguese | beliscar , roubar , beliscada, beliscão , pitada (ex: uma pitada de sal) , aperto |
| Spanish | pellizcar, repizcar, peñiscar, peñizcar , afanar , pellizco |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pinch come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).