🤏 To squeeze tightly 🤏 A small squeeze 😣 A hard situation 🕵️ To steal 🧂 A small amount 👐 To shape by squeezing 👮 An arrest 🌱 To cut a tip 📱 To zoom with fingers 📱 A zoom gesture

to pinch

12 3.8

Press material with your fingers to make raised edges or patterns

verb
/pɪnʧ/

: pellizcar

For the best dumplings, pinch the dough tightly at the seams to seal them.
pinch the edges
pinch together
pinch each end

So you need to always make sure you're pinching with the thinner side facing you.

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Examples

Without a thumb's ability to pinch and oppose, even simple tasks must be difficult for him.

Fiction book (2000)
Basically just kind of pull them out and then pinch it and refold it right on the edge.
So they just lift up from here, pinch that in at the side and then edge out there.
So I'm just going to come back and just pinch it right here just like that.
You gotta pinch the sides, pinch the sides and then roll that sucker over.
Pinch my skin together like this.

Fat Camp (2017)
A triangle cut out and then you pinch that fabric closed.
Then you're going to fold up the bottom like a triangle and then pinch the sides.
So you need to always make sure you're pinching with the thinner side facing you.

Molly Burke
The jerky sobbing is starting to slow down, leaving my heart pinched with missing him.

Fiction book (1993)

Synonyms

to press

vsto pinch

534 1.0

Use force on something with your hand or a tool to flatten it

focuses on creating raised edges by bringing edges together, not broad flattening

to crinkle

vsto pinch

12 3.7

Form small lines on paper, skin, or cloth

forms pronounced raised ridges rather than small fine wrinkles or creases

to scrunch

vsto pinch

Informal

9 5.5

Squeeze something until it becomes wrinkled or folded

forms raised ridges instead of mainly folding material into compact shapes

to crimp

vsto pinch

2 6.3

To press edges together to make a wavy ridge

is used to make raised ridges rather than a continuous wavy edge

to scrunch up

vsto pinch

Informal

1 4.1

To press something so it becomes wrinkled, for example paper or your face

creates raised ridges by squeezing edges together rather than compacting

Idioms

a pinch of

12 1.5

A very small amount of salt or spice used in cooking

to pinch a loaf

Offensive

1 9.9

To go to the toilet to poo

at a pinch

7.7

If necessary in a difficult or emergency situation

Phrasal Verbs

to pinch-hit

8 7.6

To do another person's work for a short time when they cannot

to penny-pinch

Informal

1 7.7

Spend very little money and avoid buying things you do not need

to pinch one off

Offensive

1 9.9

To go to the toilet to poop in a rude way

to pinch someone's tushie

Offensive

9.9

To squeeze someone's bottom playfully to show affection or flirt

Compounds

pinch hitter

Jargon

8 6.7

A player who bats in place of another or someone who fills a job for a short time

pinch of sugar

1 1.0

A very small amount of sugar you can hold between your thumb and finger

pinch bar

1 7.4

A long strong metal tool with a pointed end used to lift heavy things

playful pinch

Informal

3.1

A light squeeze on someone's skin to tease or show affection

How Tight

to crush

401 1.6

to compress

94 3.7

to pinch

12 3.8

squeeze

12 1.5

press

11 1.3

Surface Forms

pinch infinitive

pinched past

pinched past participle

pinching present participle

pinches third person singular

Etymology

Pinch for shaping clay or fabric comes from the action of pressing material between your fingers to make edges or ridges, so to pinch is to squeeze and form the material.