pinch

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pinch/pɪntʃ/

▶verb

• 1 grip (the flesh) tightly and sharply between finger and thumb.

  ■ (of a shoe) hurt (a foot) by being too tight.

  ■ (often as adj. pinched) tighten (the lips or a part of the face), especially with worry or tension.

• 2 live in a frugal way.

• 3 informal steal.

  ■ Brit. arrest (someone).

• 4 remove (buds or leaves) to encourage bushy growth.

• 5 Sailing sail (a boat) so close to the wind that the sails begin to lose power.

▶noun

• 1 an act of pinching.

  ■ an amount of an ingredient that can be held between fingers and thumb.

• 2 Baseball a critical point in the game.

– phrases
at (or N. Amer. in) a pinch if absolutely necessary.
feel the pinch experience hardship, especially financial.

– origin ME: from an Old North. Fr. var. of OFr. pincier ‘to pinch’.