INCHED Synonyms: 43 Similar and Opposite Words

inched

verb

Definition of inched

past tense of inch

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

Relevance

as in dragged

to move slowly the car inched carefully across the snow-covered causeway

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 Airborne at one point during testing, Silva reportedly inched out on the helicopter's right skid — with no safety belt — to investigate the cause of intense vibrations shaking the cockpit, according to a 2009 interview with Smithsonian Magazine. — ABC News, 17 Sep. 2026 After over a year from playing live, Baker has inched back into performing, playing a solo show in Nantucket, Massachusetts in late August and serving as surprise guest during her Boygenius bandmate Lucy Dacus’ Outside Lands gig. — Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2026 Oil prices inched lower on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to further increase its output targets from August while exports from key producers via the Strait of Hormuz are recovering, potentially adding to global supplies. — Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 1 Sep. 2026 Specialists on the phone with their clients kept their paddles in the air as the bids inched higher and higher. — Marisa Meltzer, Vanity Fair, 21 Aug. 2026 Whether Kidman’s performance inched the price upward remains unclear. — Ara H. Merjian, ARTnews.com, 16 Aug. 2026 McAdoo also had an RBI single and Brett Bateman reached base three times as the Blue Jays inched closer to the final AL wild-card spot. — CBS News, 15 Aug. 2026 So while governing bodies and SafeSport inched toward reform, ProPublica and The Post found, the AAU did not. — Molly Hensley-Clancy, ProPublica, 13 Aug. 2026 Overnight, the ship inched through eight impossibly narrow locks, depositing us on Lake Ontario. — Hannah Agran, Midwest Living, 12 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for inched

Verb

In what his dad (Ed Harris) calls the decline of humanity, the club is being encroached on by pickleballers clamoring for more courts.

— Christine Ledbetter, Chicago Tribune, 7 Aug. 2026
But the somatosensory cortex, the touch cortex, has like encroached upon it.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of encroached

Verb

The sophomore set him down outside the door of the boys varsity locker room, and a 15-year-old grabbed the victim’s ankles, dragged him inside and held him down, the boy told police.

— Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 Sep. 2026
My brother is lying on the floor, as if thrown down and dragged there.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of dragged

Verb

Suki, who had been with her new family only a few weeks, had crawled into an opening in an entertainment center cabinet and could not get out.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2026
Every window of every building the bus crawled past opened a severe yearning in me, as though my life here had become abstract or theoretical.

— Hisham Matar, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2026

Definition of crawled

Verb

In any case, Babcock is now tasked with rejuvenating a team that took a massive step backward last season and only shuffled a few pieces during the offseason.

— Max Bultman, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many studios either shuffled their product directly to streaming or waited a mere 17 days for their films to become available to buy or rent at home.

— Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of shuffled

Verb

The dog’s ribs poked out, her skin was irritated and red, and patches of fur were missing — a possible sign of mange.

— Sandra McDonald, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2026
In between, Arsenal had plenty of attacking joy, particularly when the slick positional rotations of their right flank poked at the weak spot on the left of Chelsea’s defence.

— Liam Twomey, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2026

Definition of poked

Browse Nearby Words

inch by inch

inched

inches

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“Inched.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inched. Accessed 21 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of inched

verb

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