pinch, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pinch v.

[orig. Und., mainstream sl. from mid-19C]

1. to rob.

1576		Tyde taryeth no Man in Collier (1863) II 66: I know how Greedinesse with the great part is vsed, / Their pilling , pouling, pinching and spoyling: / How both the simple and others, with them are abused.
1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier D2: The Tailor doth this upon meere deuotion to punish pride, and [...] thinkes it beste to pinch them by the purse end and make them paye well.
1593		Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew II i: I’ll leave her houses three or four as good [...] Besides two thousand ducats by the year Of fruitful land, all of which shall be her jointure. What, have I pinch’d you, Signio Gremio?
c.1600–62		Common Cries of London in Collier Book of Roxburghe Ballads (1847) 213: And some there be ... That pinch the countryman With nimming of a fee .
1654		New Brawle 11: Go, go ye Bulking Roague you, go to your fellow Pick-pockets sirrah, go Pinch the Rum Culle again of the Coale.
c.1670		‘Excellent Medley’ in Euing Broadside Ballads No. 86: Hang care, the Kings a coming [...] Oh what an age do we live in, hang pinching.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) IV 131: The old codger will be pinched to the bone and left penniless.
1835		Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: Pinching, stealing ribbands, needles, etc.
1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 17 Apr. 4/2: ‘I’ll learn you to try and pinch me, my nabs’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 30/1: He was sure there must be a ‘century’ in it [i.e. a purse] [...] and if we would give him a ‘stall’ he would ‘pinch’ her before she entered the carriage that was waiting for her.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: I pinched a swell of a fawney and fenced it for a double finnip and a cooter. My jomer stalled. I robbed a gentleman of a ring and sold it for a ten-pound note and a sovereign. My girl watched.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 50: He had in some way lost my priceless gift-cameo. [...] ‘Maybe, Jimmy,’ he said, ‘somebody pinched me in some “off” resort.’.
1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 61: Pinchin’ ain’t so bad if you ain’t nabbed.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 62: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] to rob a till – pinch a lobb.

2. to steal.

a.1674		‘The Thief-Ketcher’s Song’ in Head Canting Academy (1674) 145: The fifth is a Glasier, who when he creeps in; / To pinch all the Lurry, he thinks it no sin.
1683		London Jilt pt 2 20: As for the other [money] that I had pinched from him from time to time [...] I locked them up.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Pinch to Steal, or Slily convey any thing away.
1712		‘Black Procession’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 38: The fifth was a glazier who when he creeps in, / To pinch all the lurry he thinks it no sin.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pinch, To go into a tradesman’s shop under the pretence of purchasing rings or other light articles, and when examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat .
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 258: pinch: to purloin small articles of value in the shops of jewellers, &c., while pretending to purchase or bespeak some trinket.
1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 163/2: To pinch a Lobb – to rob a till.
1842		Egan ‘Miss Dolly Trull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 143: She runs such precious cranky rigs / With pinching wedge and lockets.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Pinch, to steal; petty larceny.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 38: He told me as Bill had flimped a yack and pinched a swell of a fawney.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: And where the swag, so bleakly pinched, / A hundred stretches hence?
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 139: ‘If takin’ things [...] isn’t stealin’, what is it?’ I asked [...] ‘Pinchin’, findin’, gleanin’, some coves calls it,’ put in Ripston.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 369: Perhaps before doing so he had ‘pinched’ from the card-box whatever money the ‘sucker’ had handed in for checks.
1889		S. Bailey Ups and Downs of a Crook’s Life 78: You have been through it, and ‘weeded’ it since you ‘pinched’ it.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 82: Dat Duchess had pinched de tickets t’ Miss Fannie’s box at de horse show.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 58: Pinch, to steal.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 227: He was convinced, from the instant he discovered his boodle was gone, that it had been ‘pinched’.
1902		Truth (Brisbane) 19 Oct. 3/3: ‘[I]t’s [i..e a skirt] as good as it was when you “pinched” it!’.
1905		Sporting Times 1 Apr. 3/3: What about the cob? Dead, pinched, cast in her box?
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 34: In a few years we shall be pinching Comrade Bickersdyke’s job.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 26 July 10/2: I wonder if Myrtle cut her ‘sunburnt blister’s’ dinner [...] or did she pinch enough stuff from the gay and hearty?
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 68: ‘What have you done outside of pinching my car’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 156: We pinched the pants-pressing sign.
1929		Illus. Police News 29 Aug. 3/4: ‘I knew the stuff was “crooked”. I didn’t help to pinch it’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 228: Is it true that you go down to Castle Gardens and dance so that you can pinch pocket-books?
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 78: I pinched a quid off him, and a fountain-pen.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 2 Sept. [synd. cartoon strip] If you hear anything about me pinching beer from the wet canteen [...] it’s a plurry lie!!
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 43: A big roll of parchment stuff we pinched from the Art Room.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 176: Baxter reckons the officers and snakes are pinching our beer.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 41: He could have pinched the shirt off my back and I’d still have liked him.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 180: His lorry-loads of tulips, the one’s he’d pinched.
1959		F. Norman Fings I Prologue: A little geezer in a sailor’s uniform pinches Sergeant Collins’ tin helmet.
1962		J. McNeill How Does Your Garden Grow? (1974) 54: bulla: And a lot more of ’em would be too, if their missus hadn’t been pinched orf ’em while they was trampin’ over deserts!
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 146: I pinched a load of ball pens, pencils, cycling tools, things like that.
1977		J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend Scene 72: I never felt guilty pinching from my mother.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 19: Who pinched the Americas fuckin’ Cup.
1992		D. Pinckney High Cotton (1993) 142: Some joker pinched his brother’s bicycle.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] ‘Tell me about the truck.’ ‘Pinched it this afternoon’.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 59: The Black Dino thinks we [...] checked into this fleapit so he could pinch a chunk of lunch money.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 69: ‘[T]he present your Italian friends sent us [...] it’s been fucking pinched’.

3. spec. to rob a shopkeeper by confusing them while asking for change.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: I tun and pinch Slats and half Slats; asking Change for Crowns and Half Crowns.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pinch, to steal money under pretence of getting change for gold.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753].
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: pinch, or truck to steal money under pretence of getting change.
1809		Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: pinch to steal money under pretence of getting change.
1821		Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 July 191/1: A system of robbery called ‘pinching’ [...] two thieves dressed like gentlemen, *nter a jeweller's shop, one engrosses the attention of the shopkeeper, while the other purloins some article.
1835		Kent Modern Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809].
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1809].

4. to arrest; thus to imprison (see cite 1851).

1789		Times 28 Apr. 2/2: If the culprit himself was allowed to present petitions to that House whenever he was pinched, he could by this means divert the prosecution, by turning his accusers into culprits and criminals.
1845		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Oct. 57/4: ‘I could bear to see a “cracksman,” though he were a bosom friend, “pinched” for life’.
1850		Western Times 9 Feb. 6/3: I was a fool to be ‘pinched’ (taken) to-night.
1851		‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 27/2: [T]he prisoners felt that they must stand at the Bailey bar, and perhaps be ‘pinched for life’.
1859		W. Burrows Adventures of a Mounted Trooper 54: The female friends [...] are also engaged in considering [...] whether poor Bill, Tom, or Harry will be ‘pinched’ or ‘turned up’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 387/1: He got acquitted for that there note after he had me ‘pinched’ (arrested).
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: He won’t have the man ‘pinched’ that ‘put up the job’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 223: The blooming crushers were precious glad when they ‘pinched’ ’im.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Dec. 7/2: ‘Jim’s pinched [...] He was working the lobby of the Fifth Avenue, and — ’.
1886		Eve. News (Sydney) 27 Apr. 7/4: I got ‘copped’ on suspicion of robbing a drunken man in Hyde Park. The night before I was ‘pinched’ I noticed that the police all along Kent and Sussex streets were doubled.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 109: That chap Warrigal don’t cotton to either of you, and he’s likely to give you away if he’s pinched himself.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 434: There’s such a thing as perfeshional pride, and if we sh’d ’appen to get rung or pinched, I sh’ldn’t like ter ’ave it brought agen me that I’d coopered the job.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 13 May. 5/5: If we get pinched we will get a tenner apiece.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 2/6: If there pinched, well then, no matter, / There aint nothink on them found .
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 141: The fixed-point man came up and pinched him without more ado.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] We dragged her away before she got pinched.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 72: Th’ main guy is off at th’ seashore bein’ pinched f’r exceeding th’ speed-limit.
1917		Wodehouse ‘The Romance Of An Ugly Policeman’ in Man with Two Left Feet 177: Goo’ Lor’! She’s been pinched!
1919		V.J. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 18: She had a ‘down’ on the force. Her eldest son had been ‘pinched’.
1919		E. Pound letter Oct. in Paige (1971) 150: Point is that ‘Nausikaa’ has been pinched by the po-lice. Only way to get Ulysses printed in book form, will be to agree not to print any more of it in the L.R.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 68: My cousin was a police captain and would have him pinched.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 188: I can’t have cops coming in here pinching people.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 126: I’m pinched again I tell ye! and I’ll be b******d if it’s not the fourth time in three months!
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 8: Pinched: Arrested.
1939		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 30 Sept. 16: [He] has strict orders to pinch any after-hour joint where they peddle likker.
1941		N. Davis ‘Don’t Give Your Right Name’ in Goulart (1967) 2: You ain’t been pinched for three weeks.
1946		F.J. Hardy ‘The Load of Wood’ in Man From Clinkapella 8: Here’s one Darky that’ll risk gettin’ pinched, before he’ll let his kids freeze.
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/5: Detective Doyle's list includes such old English slang words as [...] ‘pinch,’ to arrest.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 202: He’s used to pinching parkers on the broad highway.
1969		A. Buzo Rooted I iii: Then the coppers arrived and tried to pinch him.
1971		J. McNeill Chocolate Frog (1973) 20: tosser: Why did they pinch yer, anyway? How long are yer doin’?’.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 37: A guy had to be constantly alert not to get pinched in the act.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 25: I had been pinched on the credit card.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 80: Les had been pinched [...] and was in remand.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 25: If it wasn’t coming up to the season of goodwill I’d’ve gone back and had the cunt pinched.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Gil Mitchell had been pinched with Des Byrnes for the underworld shooting of Ronnie Preswidge.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [used within a prison] I was pinched. Attempted escape.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 252: My wife, she and I were already split before I got pinched.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 166: Sooner or later he’d get pinched by his own squad of police rats and he’d spew his connections to Galante for a deal.

5. to pass counterfeit money in exchange for goods.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: pinch [...] to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again, and return the change, by which means several bad shillings are passed.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

6. to raid.

1895		Report on Police Dept. N.Y. (N.Y. State Senate Committee) III 3171: They came in, pinched the place, and took a different man who never was in the place before [OED].
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 162: Every ginmill open after hours, or on Sunday, should be pinched.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Little Speck in Garnered Fruit’ in Voice of the City (1915) 46: Has they done pinched us ag’in, boss?
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 209: They pinched the roadhouse, taking eveybody’s name.
1934–5		J.T. Farrell ‘Comedy Cop’ in Fellow Countrymen (1937) 423: ‘The house is pinched,’ a party wit said.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 180: A fin to the bondsman when the house is pinched.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 43: At this juncture, with the abruptness with which these things always happen, the joint was pinched.

7. to capture.

1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 57: Yez think yez’ve got us pinched now wit’ yer gettin’ up yer signals to de insurgents.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 48: Their game was to pinch one of us and do business with the other on a cash basis.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 181: ‘We were going to pinch you when you left, but you made us’.

8. to charge with a crime.

1954

P. Larkin letter 23 Jan. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 221: Since then all that’s happened is that I got pinched for not having a wireless license.

In derivatives

pinching (adj.)

(UK Und.) pertaining to an arrest.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 102/1: This last ‘pinching’ scrape rather took the metle out of Jemmy.

In compounds

John the pinchman (n.)

(UK und.) a thief.

1844

New Sprees of London 14: There are too many chanting slangs faking away now, and it's no go to come John the pinchman with John the greenman.

pinch-back (n.) (also pinch-belly) [they pinch someone else’s back by refusing to pay them enough to buy enough clothes]

a miser.

1600		Nashe Summer’s Last Will and Testament in Works VI (1883–4) 151: Christmas the one, a pinch-back, cut-throate churle.
1602		Rowlands Greene’s Ghost Haunting Coniecatchers F2: The Notable [...] and deceitfull pranks of Doctor Pinchbacke.
1800		Sporting Mag. Dec. XVII 141/2: I have nothing to do with pinch-back these pinch-belly times.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

pinch-bottom (n.)

a pimp.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

pinch-buttock (n.)

a pimp.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

pinch-commons (n.) [SE commons, provisions that are provided in common for a group]

a miser.

1821

W. Scott Pirate I 79: What if this house be strewed in ruins before morning – where would be the world’s want in the crazed projector, and the niggardly pinch-commons, by which it is inhabited?

pinch-cunt (n.) [cunt n. (1)]

a pimp.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

pinch-fart (n.) [fart n. (1)]

a miser.

1592		Nashe Pierce Pennilesse 18: A cod-peece, well dunged and manured with greace (which my pinch-fart penie-father had retaind from his Bachelorship, vntill the eating of these presents).
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 416: Damn it, you spread a wuss table even than that Yankee pinch-fart Coolidge.

pinch-fist (n.) [SE fist]

a miser.

c.1580		J. Jeffere Bugbears I ii 61 in Archiv Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897) XCVIII 308: Our pinchefist the old vecchio [OED].
1681		W. Robertson Phraseologia Generalis 990/1: A Pinch-fist; Avarus.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Fortunes R. Mahony I ix 84: They were pinchfists when it came to parting with their money [OED].

pinch-gloak (n.) [gloak n.]

a petty thief who specializes in stealing small articles from jewellers.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 333: There was a covey on board the swimmer with me who had been a regular pinch-gloak.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

pinch-gut

see separate entries.

pinch-prick (n.) [prick n. (1)]

a prostitute.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

pinch-wife (n.)

a mean, boorish husband, who does not trust his wife.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

In phrases

at the pinch

(UK Und.) working as a thief, esp. petty theft from shops, carried out during a purchase, giving short change or passing counterfeit money in exchange for good.

1785

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

pinch a bob (v.) [thus cited by Greenwood (Seven Curses of London, 1869), but the bob may either be generic for money, or a mishearing of lob n.¹ (3)]

to rob a till.

1869

J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 88: To rob a till – pinch a bob.

pinch on the parson’s side (v.)

to cheat a parson of their tithes.

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 344: Pinch on the Parsons side.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: To Pinch on the Parson’s side, or Sharp him of his Tythes.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1868		Preston Chron. 18 Apr. 6/3: We all have a respect for the general cloth, and yet the old proverb — ‘Pinch at the parson's side’ — crops up, and we are wickedly inclined to interpret it literally.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

pinch a loaf (v.)

(US) to defecate; thus loaf pincher, the anus.

1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 pinch one off (compound verb) defecate [...] (Also: to ‘pinch a loaf’).
2003		T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 206: Brandon dropped his trousers. ‘You’re going to pinch a loaf?’.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 188: Your body can’t pinch a loaf whenever it feels like it.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 79: ‘I really have to . . .you know . . .pinch a loaf here.’ He unbuckled and yanked down his pants.
[2013		E. Hagelstein ‘Neighbor’s Dog’ in ThugLit Aug. [ebook] ‘[E]very time you pinch out a hot one someone’s going to come up behind you and gobble it up’].
2015		A Schumer ‘Milk Milk Lemonade’ 🎵 Turd cutter / Loaf pitcher [sic] / Dookie maker / Fudge machine .

pinch off (v.)

(Aus.) to go surreptitiously.

1920

Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 5 June 7/2: He’s going to scale sport to-morrow and pinch off to the flicks.

pinch one off (v.) [‘one’ is a piece of excrement; the phr. reflects the basic meaning of turd n. (1), something that is ‘torn off’ from the body]

(US) to defecate.

1941		implied in pinch it off!
1997–2002		Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 pinch one off (compound verb) defecate Expletetive reference by men to defecation.

pinch the cat (v.) [joc. use of SE, although cat usu. ref. to female sexuality]

of a man, to fondle one’s genitals through one’s trouser pocket.

1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

put pincher on (v.)

(Aus. und.) to arrest.

1886		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 July 17/4: He also did something in ‘snow-dropping,’ but owing to ill-luck, brought on by associating with a ‘square-head,’ the ‘demon put pincher on him’.
1889-90		D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I 304/1: ‘The demons put pincher on me,’ I was apprehended.

In exclamations

pinch it off! [fig. use of pinch one off ]

(Aus.) hurry up!

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 237/1: pinch it off – get a move on, hurry up.