Definition of: pinch

(pinch) v.t.
1. To squeeze between two hard edges, or surfaces, a finger and thumb, etc.
2. To bind or compress painfully: This collar pinches my neck.
3. To affect with pain or distress: The cold pinched his fingers.
4. To contract or make thin, as from cold or hunger.
5. To reduce in means; distress, as for lack of money; straiten.
6. To move by means of a pinchbar.
7. Slang To capture or arrest.
8. Slang To steal.
9. Naut. To sail (a vessel) close–hauled.
—v.i.
10. To squeeze; hurt.
11. To be careful with money; be stingy.
12. Mining Of veins, to become narrow; also, to disappear: with out.
—to pinch pennies To be economical or stingy.
—noun
1. The act of pinching.
2. Painful pressure of any kind.
3. A case of emergency.
4. So much of a loose substance as can be taken between the finger and thumb.
5. A narrow or tapering section on a vein of rock or fissure of earth.
6. A pinchbar.
7. Slang A theft.
8. Slang An arrest or raid. [<AF pincher, OF pincier, prob. <Gmc.]
—pinch′er noun