feel the pinch
to feel money pressure
TRANSLATION
feel the pinch = die Auswirkungen des Geldmangels spüren --- GOOGLE INDEX feel the pinch: approximately 75,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
FEELING THE PINCH. Even as jobs grow scarce, real wages continue to fall. If Abenomics means anything, it is the promise of the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to restore healthy economic growth to Japan and end years of deflation.
Japan’s economy - The Economist
Japan’s economy - The Economist
Did you
know?
feel the pinch
idiom
- to experience the effect of having less money
(Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms)
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WORD ORIGIN
The verb pinch means "to squeeze something, especially someone's skin, strongly between two hard things such as a finger and a thumb, usually causing pain." As a noun, among other things pinch refers to " a painful, difficult, or strained circumstance."
Thus to "feel the pinch" is a metaphor for the pressure or discomfort of having less money than before. Synonymous with feel the pinch is "feel the squeeze" (squeeze means to press something firmly, especially from all sides).
Pinch need not be negative. Imagine pinching a bit of salt between the forefinger and thumb and adding it to a big pot of spaghetti sauce. The expression "a pinch of", whether it's salt or any other type of herb or spice, is frequently used in cooking recipes. It's simply a way to describe a small amount that need not be exactly measured.
This brings us to the idioms, "take something with a pinch of salt" or "take something with a grain of salt."
Both of these phrases express scepticism about something one has heard or read: "Take that report with a pinch of salt. I don't think it is well-researched." This stems from the idea that a little bit of salt makes a meal tastier and thus easier to swallow.
Finally, if someone says "I find that hard to swallow," this also expresses doubt about something.
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"With the credit squeeze, a lot of companies are feeling the pinch these days."
idiom
- to experience the effect of having less money
(Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The verb pinch means "to squeeze something, especially someone's skin, strongly between two hard things such as a finger and a thumb, usually causing pain." As a noun, among other things pinch refers to " a painful, difficult, or strained circumstance."
Thus to "feel the pinch" is a metaphor for the pressure or discomfort of having less money than before. Synonymous with feel the pinch is "feel the squeeze" (squeeze means to press something firmly, especially from all sides).
Pinch need not be negative. Imagine pinching a bit of salt between the forefinger and thumb and adding it to a big pot of spaghetti sauce. The expression "a pinch of", whether it's salt or any other type of herb or spice, is frequently used in cooking recipes. It's simply a way to describe a small amount that need not be exactly measured.
This brings us to the idioms, "take something with a pinch of salt" or "take something with a grain of salt."
Both of these phrases express scepticism about something one has heard or read: "Take that report with a pinch of salt. I don't think it is well-researched." This stems from the idea that a little bit of salt makes a meal tastier and thus easier to swallow.
Finally, if someone says "I find that hard to swallow," this also expresses doubt about something.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"With the credit squeeze, a lot of companies are feeling the pinch these days."
