pinching

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.
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   2. to seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals. [Obs.]
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            He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
                                                  --Chapman.
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   3. To plait. [Obs.]
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            Full seemly her wimple ipinched was.  --Chaucer.
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   4. Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to
      starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money.
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            Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.
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   5. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a
      pinch. See {Pinch}, n., 4.
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   6. To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift. [Slang]
      --Robert Barr.
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   7. to catch; to arrest (a criminal).
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Pinching \Pinch"ing\, a.
   Compressing; nipping; griping; niggardly; as, pinching cold;
   a pinching parsimony.
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   {Pinching bar}, a pinch bar. See {Pinch}, n., 4.

   {Pinching nut}, a check nut. See under {Check}, n.
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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