[syn: hard up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p), penniless, penurious, pinched]
4. as if squeezed uncomfortably tight;
- Example: "her pinched toes in her pointed shoes were killing her"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. to seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
--Chapman.
[1913 Webster]
3. To plait. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Full seemly her wimple ipinched was. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
4. Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to
starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money.
[1913 Webster]
Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. --Sir W.
Raleigh.
[1913 Webster]
5. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a
pinch. See Pinch, n., 4.
[1913 Webster]
6. To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift. [Slang]
--Robert Barr.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
7. to catch; to arrest (a criminal).
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pinched
adj 1: sounding as if the nose were pinched; "a whining nasal
voice" [syn: adenoidal, pinched, nasal]
2: very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold;
"emaciated bony hands"; "a nightmare population of gaunt men
and skeletal boys"; "eyes were haggard and cavernous"; "small
pinched faces"; "kept life in his wasted frame only by grim
concentration" [syn: bony, cadaverous, emaciated,
gaunt, haggard, pinched, skeletal, wasted]
3: not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: hard
up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p),
penniless, penurious, pinched]
4: as if squeezed uncomfortably tight; "her pinched toes in her
pointed shoes were killing her"