inch
An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, conceived as roughly the width of a thumb.
Adjective
- cocky and cheeky
- I still remember Donald Duck sit next to him after NG dog being 'Done'd to F.2 building... he is still very Inch in Year 1983-4 teaching me RS - 1994 May 29, Albert Ng, soc.culture.hongkong (Usenet):
- The service was professional but very "inch". We were served by a Cantonese speaking local. The waiter asked if we wanted water without telling us it costs $75 for just water!! - 2006 June 12, killgirl, OpenRice:
Origin
Semantic loan from Cantonese 寸 (cyun³, “inch”), which is an alternative form of 串 (cyun³, “cocky; to provoke; etc.”).
Synonyms
Noun Entry 2
- An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, conceived as roughly the width of a thumb.
- The sledges of the Esquimaux are of large size, varying from six and a half to nine and even eleven feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth. - 1873, Charles Tomlinson, chapter III, in Winter in...
- The term "precision measurement" […] refers to the art of reproducing and controlling dimensions expressed in thousandths of an inch or smaller. - 1939, The Department of Education of International Business Machines...
- He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on...
- Any very short distance.
- Don't move an inch!
- Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch. - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London:...
- [B]e the consequences what they may, they shall not move an inch, nor a hair's-breadth from the ground of their groundless spiritual independence, […] - 1840, Lewis Rose, chapter III, in An Humble Attempt to Put an End...
- Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
- A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
- Let us consider what one inch of rain really means. If an acre of land were covered with water to the depth of only the tenth part of an inch, that layer of water would weigh more than 10 tons: thus 1 inch of rain is...
- A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.
Origin
From Middle English ynche, enche, from Old English ynċe, borrowed 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 ounce, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.
Forms
Derived
acre-inch a mile wide and an inch deep Big Inch budge an inch characters per inch column inch cubic inch dots per inch every inch give an 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 half inch Inchbonnie inch by inch incher inchful inchlong inchmeal inch-perfect inch stuff inch tracker
Noun Ireland, Scotland
- A small island; an islet.
- The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly. - 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman,...
- A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.
- 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...
- 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[,]...
Origin
From Scots inch, from Scottish Gaelic innis.
Forms
Derived
Verb Entry 4
- To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
- Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.
- On reaching the section under construction they must be capable of inching the train forward on rough track up gradients as steep as 1 in 30. - 1951 October, “London Transport Battery Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine,...
- 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...
- To drive by inches, or small degrees.
- 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.
Forms
Related
Derived
inch along inch away inch back inch forward inch up inchworm
Verb Hong Kong, colloquial
- to burn (to insult); to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner
- 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,...