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Pinch vs Cinch - What's the difference?

pinch | cinch |

As verbs the difference between pinch and cinch

is that pinch is to squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while cinch is to bring to certain conclusion.

As nouns the difference between pinch and cinch

is that pinch is the action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while cinch is a simple saddle girth used in Mexico.

pinch

English

Verb

(es)
  • 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 steal, usually of something almost trivial or inconsequential.
  • Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=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.}}
  • (slang) To arrest or capture.
  • (horticulture) To cut shoots]] or [[bud, buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
  • (nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
  • (hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
  • (obsolete) To be niggardly or covetous.
  • (Gower)
  • * Franklin
  • the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
  • To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
  • * Chapman
  • He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
  • (figurative) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
  • to be pinched for money
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
  • want of room pinching a whole nation
  • To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
  • Noun

    (es)
  • The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
  • A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
  • An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
  • * 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 171:
  • 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 .
  • An organic herbal smoke additive.
  • Derived terms

    * feel the pinch * in a pinch * at a pinch * pinchy * take with a pinch of salt

    Descendants

    * Japanese: (pinchi)

    cinch

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.
  • * He found Andy morosely replacing some broken strands in his cinch , and he went straight at the mooted question. — B. M. Bower, The Flying U's Last Stand
  • (informal) Something that is very easy to do.
  • No problem ... it's a cinch .
  • * "We thought we had a cinch on getting out by way of this cord and so we followed that." — Major Archibald Lee Fletcher, Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns
  • (informal) A firm hold.
  • * You've got the cinch on him. You could send him to quod, and I'd send him there as quick as lightning. I'd hang him, if I could, for what he done to Lil Sarnia. — Gilbert Parker, The World For Sale,
  • Synonyms

    * (something that is very easy to do) See also (an activity that is easy) * breeze * cakewalk * doddle * piece of cake * walk in the park * walkover

    Verb

  • To bring to certain conclusion.
  • To tighten down.
  • Quotations

    * 1911', ''"I intend to '''cinch that government business."'' — Margaret Burnham, ''The Girl Aviators' Sky Cruise

    Derived terms

    * cincher