inched

past tense of inch
1
as in encroached
to advance gradually beyond the usual or desirable limits every year the water inches further up the embankments, threatening to permanently engulf the island city

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of inched Ford's sales of internal combustion vehicles, those that run on gasoline, inched up 2% in August to 160,762 gasoline cars sold. Jamie L. Lareau, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2025 Ford's sales of internal combustion vehicles, those that run on gasoline, inched up 2% in August to 160,762 gasoline cars sold. Jamie L. Lareau, Freep.com, 3 Sep. 2025 More than half of the city is at or below sea level, and with coastal erosion and the loss of wetland, the Gulf of Mexico inched closer every year before Katrina. Avalon Hester, People.com, 28 Aug. 2025 Broward condo sales inched up by more than 130 properties as the median prices dipped a bit. Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 26 Aug. 2025 Treasury yields inched higher as investors continue to digest Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech last Friday and look toward key inflation data due later in the week. Sean Conlon,lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 25 Aug. 2025 Across the nine-county area, median sales prices held steady and even inched up slightly, despite a 20% increase in active listings. Collyn Wainwright, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025 Incremental progress toward some sort of resolution for the speedway has inched forward in the years since then. Austin Hornbostel, Nashville Tennessean, 20 Aug. 2025 However, that has inched up slightly since last month. Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inched
Verb
  • From the deadly 2025 Los Angeles fires to the devastating 2019-2020 Australian bushfires and the 2018 wildfire in Athens, Greece, flames have increasingly encroached upon human settlements, claiming lives and livelihoods.
    Seyd Teymoor Seydi, The Conversation, 21 Aug. 2025
  • In the post, the woman described a situation in which the man seated next to her allegedly encroached on her space during the flight, with his thigh pressed against hers and the shared armrest raised.
    Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • His life was going nowhere, until his brother Scott dragged him off the couch and convinced Dean to sign up with his acting coach, Bill Esper.
    Nate Jones, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Mitchell was then dragged outside to the valet area, and a female Hyatt employee grabbed a broomstick and struck Mitchell with it.
    Chris Ramirez, jsonline.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • On Wednesday, a similar scene closely followed as the funeral procession for Kansas City, Kansas, police officer Hunter Simoncic crawled along through the highways and streets in the community Simoncic worked to keep safe.
    Emily Curiel, Kansas City Star, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Eby crawled across a ladder over the water to the vehicle, then crawled back with the child on his back, the video shows.
    Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The wildfires ignited Tuesday as a monsoonal storm crept north across the state, unleashing more than 9,000 lightning strikes, according to Cal Fire.
    Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index, surged 15% on Tuesday as jitters crept back onto Wall Street.
    John Towfighi, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Over the past two months, he’s been shuffled through three detention centers despite attempts to pay a bond set by the immigration judge.
    Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 22 Aug. 2025
  • On Wednesday Ahn slowly shuffled to a bridge leading to the Korean Peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), pleading for permission to cross the zone – one of the most heavily militarized borders in the world – and enter North Korea.
    Gawon Bae, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The post, which shared several photos from the outing, also poked fun at the couple getting caught in the rain while meeting with schoolchildren at the museum.
    Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE, 4 Sep. 2025
  • While some people argued that the photo was degrading to women, Carpenter stood by the photo and poked fun at the controversy while sharing alternate album covers.
    Katherine Schaffstall, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inched.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inched. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

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