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.

Verb

(en verb)

To collect; normally separate things.

I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.

She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.

# Especially, to harvest food.

We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.

# To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.

Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.

# To congregate, or assemble.

People gathered round as he began to tell his story.

#* Tennyson

Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.

# To grow gradually larger by accretion.

#* Francis Bacon

Their snowball did not gather as it went.

To bring parts of a whole closer.

She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.

# (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.

A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.

# (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.

Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.

If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.

# (architecture) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.

# (nautical) To haul in; to take up.

to gather the slack of a rope

To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.

From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.

I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.

(intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus

Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.

(glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.

To gain; to win.

* Dryden

He gathers ground upon her in the chase.