pinch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To squeeze (something) between the thumb and a finger, the jaws of a tool, or other edges.
• intransitive verb To cause pain or discomfort to (a part of the body) by pressing or being too tight.
• intransitive verb To nip, wither, or shrivel.
• intransitive verb To cause to be in difficulty or financial distress.
• intransitive verb Slang To take (money or property) wrongfully. synonym: steal.
• intransitive verb Slang To take into custody; arrest.
• intransitive verb To move (something) with a pinch bar.
• intransitive verb Nautical To sail (a boat) so close into the wind that its sails shiver and its speed is reduced.
• intransitive verb To press, squeeze, or bind painfully.
• intransitive verb To draw a thumb and a finger together on a touchschreen to cause the image to become smaller.
• intransitive verb To be frugal or miserly.
• intransitive verb Nautical To drag an oar at the end of a stroke.
• noun The act or an instance of pinching.
• noun An amount that can be held between thumb and forefinger.
• noun Difficulty or hardship.
• noun An emergency situation.
• noun A narrowing of a mineral deposit, as in a mine.
• noun Informal A theft.
• noun Slang An arrest by a law enforcement officer.
• adjective Relating to pinch-hitting or pinch runners.
• idiom (pinch pennies) To be thrifty or miserly.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In mining, a partial caving in or compression of the walls of a vein of ore or of a coal-bed, sufficient to disturb the ore or coal-bed. Sometimes called a pinch-out.
• noun The pressure exerted by the finger and thumb when brought together forcibly upon something, or any similar pressure; a nip: as, to give one a pinch on the arm.
• noun As much of anything as can be lifted between the finger and thumb; hence, a very small quantity: as, a pinch of snuff; a pinch of salt.
• noun A gripe; a pang.
• noun Pressure; oppression; difficulty; need.
• noun A pinch-bar.
• To compress between the finger and thumb, or between the teeth, or the claws, or with pincers or some similar instrument; squeeze or nip between two hard opposing bodies; nip; squeeze: as, to pinch one's self to keep awake.
• To squeeze or press painfully upon: as, his shoes pinch his feet.
• To seize or grip and bite: said of an animal.
• To find fault with.
• To plait.
• To straiten; distress; afflict: as, to be pinched for food; pinched with poverty.
• To narrow, contract, or nip, as by cold or want or trouble: as, pinched features; a mind narrow and pinched.
• To move with a pinch or crowbar: as, to pinch a gun into position.
• To exert a compressing or nipping pressure or force; bear hard: as, that is where the shoe pinches.
• To lay hold; bite or snap, as a dog.
• To snarl; carp; find fault.
• To be sparing, parsimonious, or niggardly.
• To encroach.
• To arrest (an offender).
• To steal.
• Nautical, to sail (a vessel) as close to the wind as she can be brought without spilling the wind out of the sails, that is, without luffing her. A sailing-vessel is said to be starved for wind when she is pinched hard.
• To compress or be squeezed out, as mineral ore from between rock strata.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To press hard or squeeze between the ends of the fingers, between teeth or claws, or between the jaws of an instrument; to squeeze or compress, as between any two hard bodies.
• transitive verb obsolete to seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals.
• transitive verb obsolete To plait.
• transitive verb Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve; to distress.
• transitive verb To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch. See Pinch, n., 4.
• transitive verb Slang To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift.