pinched
    adj 1: sounding as if the nose were pinched; "a whining nasal
           voice" [syn: adenoidal, pinched, nasal]
    2: very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold;
       "emaciated bony hands"; "a nightmare population of gaunt men
       and skeletal boys"; "eyes were haggard and cavernous"; "small
       pinched faces"; "kept life in his wasted frame only by grim
       concentration" [syn: bony, cadaverous, emaciated,
       gaunt, haggard, pinched, skeletal, wasted]
    3: not having enough money to pay for necessities [syn: hard
       up, impecunious, in straitened circumstances(p),
       penniless, penurious, pinched]
    4: as if squeezed uncomfortably tight; "her pinched toes in her
       pointed shoes were killing her"

Pinch \Pinch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pinched; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Pinching.] [F. pincer, probably fr. OD. pitsen to pinch;
   akin to G. pfetzen to cut, pinch; perhaps of Celtic origin.
   Cf. Piece.]
   1. 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.
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   2. to seize; to grip; to bite; -- said of animals. [Obs.]
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            He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
                                                  --Chapman.
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   3. To plait. [Obs.]
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            Full seemly her wimple ipinched was.  --Chaucer.
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   4. Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to
      starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money.
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            Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. --Sir W.
                                                  Raleigh.
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   5. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a
      pinch. See Pinch, n., 4.
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   6. To seize by way of theft; to steal; to lift. [Slang]
      --Robert Barr.
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   7. to catch; to arrest (a criminal).
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]