inch
See also: Inch
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English ynche, enche, from Old English ynċe, from Latin uncia (“Roman inch, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Cognate with Middle Dutch enke (“thumb, thumb's width, inch”). Doublet of a, one, ounce, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.
Alternative formsEdit
NounEdit
inch (plural inches)
- An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, roughly the width of a thumb.
- (figuratively) Any very short distance.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
- Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.
- Don't move an inch!
- Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
- (meteorology) A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
- A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.
Derived termsEdit
- Big Inch
- budge an inch
- characters per inch
- column inch
- cubic inch
- dots per inch
- every inch
- give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
- give them an inch and they'll take a mile
- give them an inch and they'll take an ell
- half-inch
- inch by inch
- inchmeal
- inch-perfect
- inch stuff
- inch tracker
- in for an inch, in for a mile
- Little Big Inch
- metric inch
- mile wide and inch deep
- miner's inch
- pyramid inch
- square inch
- twelve-inch
- united inch
- within an inch of one's life
DescendantsEdit
- → Assamese: ইঞ্চি (io͂si)
- → Hindi: इंच (iñc)
- → Indonesian: inci
- → Japanese: インチ (inchi)
- → Korean: 인치 (inchi)
- → Serbo-Croatian: и̏нч
- → Swahili: inchi
- → Turkish: inç
- → Vietnamese: inh
- → Yoruba: ínǹsì
TranslationsEdit
English unit of length and traditional equivalents
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unspecified but very short distance
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VerbEdit
inch (third-person singular simple present inches, present participle inching, simple past and past participle inched)
- (intransitive, followed by a preposition) To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
- Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.
- 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:
- The window blind had been lowered — Zooey had done all his bathtub reading by the light from the three-bulb overhead fixture—but a fraction of morning light inched under the blind and onto the title page of the manuscript.
- 2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in the Telegraph[1]:
- Already guarding a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Blackpool inched further ahead when Stephen Dobbie scored from an acute angle on the stroke of half-time. The game appeared to be completely beyond Birmingham’s reach three minutes into the second period when Matt Phillips reacted quickly to bundle the ball past Colin Doyle and off a post.
- To drive by inches, or small degrees.
- 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
- He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.
- 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
- To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
TranslationsEdit
to move very slowly
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See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Scottish Gaelic innis.
NounEdit
inch (plural inches)
- (Scotland, Ireland) A small island; an islet.
- 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
- The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.
- (Scotland, Ireland) A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.
- 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 6:
- An ivy-clad farmhouse surrounded by trees, it stood on the sunny side of a sloping hill at the foot of which the Darigle river curved its way through gold-furzed inches to disappear under a stone bridge into the woods beyond.
- 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 22:
- As these calves grew older they did not need to return to the farmyard for feeding as they were able to eat sufficient grass for themselves. They were then kept in the fields, known as the inches, along by the river[,] where they grew strong[,] and during the winter cold when grass was scarce[,] hay was carried down to them.
Usage notesEdit
Etymology 3Edit
Semantic loan from Cantonese 寸 (cyun3, “inch”), which is an alternative form of 串 (cyun3, “cocky; to provoke; etc.”).
AdjectiveEdit
inch
- (Hong Kong, colloquial) cocky and cheeky
SynonymsEdit
VerbEdit
inch (third-person singular simple present inches, present participle inching, simple past and past participle inched)
- (Hong Kong, colloquial) to burn (to insult); to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner
- 1994 March 4, tp...@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu, soc.culture.hongkong.entertainment[4] (Usenet):
- Sorry for changing the intention of the post last time; it was for nothing but the personal joy and satisfaction of "inch"-ing the person who criticized my writing while he/she can't even write. (no hard feelings, alright?!) I'd avoid that in the future. I'll try to make this a constructive discussion and be as objective as possible.
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
NounEdit
inch
- Alternative form of ynche
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Unadapted borrowing from English inch.
NounEdit
inch m (plural inchi)