Definition of "pinch"

He took the plate in his hand, holding it between thumb and forefinger at one corner, letting it hang down. With the other hand he pinched it at the opposite corner, pressing thumb and forefinger together tightly.

2014, Harlan Ellison, Paingod and Other Delusions

Since the resistance of the channel is inversely proportional to its width, the most resistive region is the one pinched between the gates where they come closest to each other.

2012, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Physics of Nanostructured Solid State Devices, page 446

With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attentionWhile queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.

1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull

“Hey, blokes,” yelled Dean or perhaps Serge, “let's pinch a boat.”

1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, page 37

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.

2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport‎

There was with him none other fare, But for to pinche and for to spare(please add an English translation of this quotation)

c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857

the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare

1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper

He [the hound] pinch'd and pull'd her down.

1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857,

Camillo was his helpe in this, his Pandar:There is a Plot against my Life, my Crowne;All's true that is mistrusted: that false Villaine,Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:He ha's discouer'd my Designe, and IRemaine a pinch'd Thing;

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

want of room […] which pincheth the whole nation

c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

[…] the well-to-do working men did not hope, since they were not pinched and had no means of learning their degraded position […]

1888, William Morris, Signs of Change […] ‎, London: Reeves and Turner, page 105

The Christian also spurns the pinched and mumping sick-room attitude, and the lives of saints are full of a kind of callousness to diseased conditions of body which probably no other human records show.

1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2

Therefore who so them accuse / Of any double entencion, / To speake, rowne, other to muse, / To pinch at their condicion, / All is but false collusion, / I dare rightwell the sothe express, / They have no better protection, / But shrowd them vnder doubleness.

1809, Alexander Chalmers ed. The Works of the English Poets, from Cahucer to Cowper, Vol. 1, modern rendering of poem imputed to Geoffrey Chaucer, "A Ballad which Chaucer made in Praise or rather Dispraise of Women for their Doubleness"

And wel his merits ſhew him to be madeHis Fortunes maiſter, and the king of men.That could perſwade at ſuch a ſodaine pinch,With reaſons of his valour and his life,A thouſand ſworne and ouer-matching foes:

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)

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.

1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, page 171

It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds.

2001, Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time