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Pinch vs Spoon - What's the difference?

pinch | spoon |

As verbs the difference between pinch and spoon

is that pinch is to squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while spoon is to serve using a spoon.

As nouns the difference between pinch and spoon

is that pinch is the action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while spoon is an implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.

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)

    spoon

    English

    (wikipedia spoon)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.
  • An implement for stirring food while being prepared; a wooden spoon.
  • A measure that will fit into a spoon; a spoonful.
  • (sports, archaic) A wooden-headed golf club with moderate loft, similar to the modern three wood.
  • (fishing) A type of metal lure resembling the concave head of a table spoon.
  • (dentistry, informal) A spoon excavator.
  • (figuratively, slang, archaic) A simpleton, a spooney.
  • (Hood)
  • A safety handle on a hand grenade, a trigger.
  • Derived terms
    * spoonbill * spooner * spoon bread * spoon-feed, spoon-fed * dessert spoon, dessertspoon * gag me with a spoon * measuring spoon * runcible spoon * silver spoon * soup spoon, soupspoon * tablespoon * teaspoon * wooden spoon

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To serve using a spoon.
  • Sarah spooned some apple sauce onto her plate.
  • (dated) To flirt; to make advances; to court, to interact romantically or amorously.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Do you think we spoon and do? We only talk.
  • (transitive, or, intransitive, slang, of persons) To lie nestled front-to-back, following the contours of the bodies, in a manner reminiscent of stacked spoons.
  • (tennis) To hit weakly
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=June 28 , author=Jamie Jackson , title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Rosol spurned the chance to finish off a shallow second serve by spooning into the net, and a wild forehand took the set to 5-4, with the native of Prerov required to hold his serve for victory.}}
    Derived terms
    * spooner * big spoon, little spoon

    See also

    * cutlery * ladle * silverware

    Etymology 2

    Origin uncertain. Compare spoom.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • * Samuel Pepys
  • We might have spooned before the wind as well as they.
    Derived terms
    * spoon-drift