Hypertext Webster Gateway: "pinched"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
2. o seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals. [Obs.]
He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
--Chapman.
3. To plait. [Obs.]
Full seemly her wimple ipinched was. --Chaucer.
4. Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to
starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money.
Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. --Sir W.
Raleigh.
5. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a
pinch. See {Pinch}, n., 4.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
pinched
adj 1: sounding as if the nose were pinched; "a whining nasal
voice" [syn: {adenoidal}, {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}, {skeletal}, {wasted}]
3: not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: {hard
up}, {impecunious}, {in straitened circumstances(p)}, {penniless},
{penurious}]
4: as if squeezed uncomfortably tight; "her pinched toes in her
pointed shoes were killing her"
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