pinch

pinch

noun

Definition of PINCH

1

an instance of theft <the pinch of my favorite sweater really bugged me!>

Synonyms grab, heist, pinch, rip-off, snatching, swiping

Related Words break-in, burglary, holdup, mugging, stickup

2

the act of taking into one's control by authority of law <an innocent person caught up in a city-wide pinch of drug dealers>

Synonyms apprehension, arrestment, bust [slang], collar, pinch

Related Words raid; house arrest; capture, entrapment, seizure; captivity, confinement, detention, enchainment, hold, immurement, imprisonment, incarceration, restraint; rearrest; remand

Near Antonyms emancipation, liberation, release

Antonyms discharge

3

a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number <this labor pinch means that there'll be long lines at the checkouts>

Synonyms crunch, dearth, deficit, drought (also drouth), failure, famine, inadequacy, inadequateness, insufficiency, lack, lacuna, paucity, pinch, poverty, scantiness, scarceness, scarcity, shortage, undersupply, want

Related Words absence, omission; meagerness, poorness, skimpiness; necessity, need, privation

Near Antonyms bountifulness, copiousness; excess, overabundance, oversupply, surfeit, surplus

Antonyms abundance, adequacy, amplitude, opulence, plenitude, plenty, sufficiency, wealth