"at a pinch" meaning in English

See at a pinch in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

IPA: /ˌæ.təˈpɪnʃ/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: EN-AU ck1 at a pinch.ogg [Australia], En-au-at a pinch.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: at + a + pinch (“tight squeeze”) Etymology templates: {{m|en|at}} at, {{m|en|a}} a, {{m|en|pinch||tight squeeze}} pinch (“tight squeeze”) Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} at a pinch, {{en-prep phrase}} at a pinch
  1. (Australia, New Zealand, British, informal, idiomatic) by a small margin or amount Tags: Australia, British, New-Zealand, idiomatic, informal Synonyms: by the skin of one's teeth, only just
    Sense id: en-at_a_pinch-en-prep_phrase-uB5OR6wi Categories (other): Australian English, British English, New Zealand English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48
  2. (idiomatic) In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: in a pinch
    Sense id: en-at_a_pinch-en-prep_phrase--k1oTETI Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for at a pinch meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "at"
      },
      "expansion": "at",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "a",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pinch",
        "3": "",
        "4": "tight squeeze"
      },
      "expansion": "pinch (“tight squeeze”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "at + a + pinch (“tight squeeze”)",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "at a pinch",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "at a pinch",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "New Zealand English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "by a small margin or amount"
      ],
      "id": "en-at_a_pinch-en-prep_phrase-uB5OR6wi",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, New Zealand, British, informal, idiomatic) by a small margin or amount"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "by the skin of one's teeth"
        },
        {
          "word": "only just"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "British",
        "New-Zealand",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available."
      ],
      "id": "en-at_a_pinch-en-prep_phrase--k1oTETI",
      "links": [
        [
          "urgent",
          "urgent"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "38 62",
          "word": "in a pinch"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌæ.təˈpɪnʃ/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "EN-AU ck1 at a pinch.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f5/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-at a pinch.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/45/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AUS)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "at a pinch"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "at"
      },
      "expansion": "at",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "a",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pinch",
        "3": "",
        "4": "tight squeeze"
      },
      "expansion": "pinch (“tight squeeze”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "at + a + pinch (“tight squeeze”)",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "at a pinch",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "at a pinch",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "British English",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "New Zealand English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "by a small margin or amount"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, New Zealand, British, informal, idiomatic) by a small margin or amount"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "by the skin of one's teeth"
        },
        {
          "word": "only just"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "British",
        "New-Zealand",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "urgent",
          "urgent"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌæ.təˈpɪnʃ/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "EN-AU ck1 at a pinch.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f5/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/EN-AU_ck1_at_a_pinch.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-at a pinch.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/45/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-at_a_pinch.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AUS)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "in a pinch"
    }
  ],
  "word": "at a pinch"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.