Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to steal; thus half-inching, theft.

1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 177: I have half-inched nothing but the portrait of — my mother!
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Oct. 4/8: But not content with taking one, / Another those poachers pinched, / And swift (in the words of the slangful gun) / My ‘East and West’ ‘half-inched’.
1910		Marvel 5 Feb. 3: ‘I thought you said you half-inched ’em?’ ‘Half-inched – pinched,’ exclaimed the comedian.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 133: Half-inching is venial, in certain lines of goods.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 201: You used to ’arf-inch suckers orf the barrers, and give ’em away afterwards.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: So has he been on the lifting lark? Half-inching from the boys up the country.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 123: He half-inched it from one of our blokes.
1966		G. Fletcher Down Among the Meths Men 75: A bum would have half-inched it as soon as the Park opened.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 64: I checked the belt I half-inched.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘May the Force be with You’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Right. Who ’alf inched the microwave?
1998		I. Welsh Filth 365: Somebody half-inched a private document of mine.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 83/1: half inch v. to steal.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 214: He carefully chained his mountain bike to a lamp-post [...] lest it be half-inched.
2021		Twitter 16 Dec. 🌐 Writing a work-in-progress newsletter can lead to 4am paranoia that someone will half-inch my Amazons of Paris research.

2. to catch, to arrest.

1920		Advocate (Burnie, Tas.) 5 June 7/2: He’ll get inched one of these days.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 293: If he leaves it much later he rec’ns he ought to be ’arf inched (pinched – arrested).
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Half inch. Rhyming slang for ‘pinch’, ie to steal or arrest.