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inch

noun
/ɪnt͡ʃ/

Etymology

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.

  1. derived from *óynos✻
  2. derived from uncia — “Roman inch, various similar units”
  3. inherited from ynċe
  4. inherited from ynche

Definitions

  1. An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, conceived as roughly the…

    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.
    • The term "precision measurement" […] refers to the art of reproducing and controlling dimensions expressed in thousandths of an inch or smaller.

  2. Any very short distance.

    • Don't move an inch!
    • Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.
    • [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, […]

  3. Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.

  4. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.

    2. A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.

    3. 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.
      • 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.

    4. To drive by inches, or small degrees.

      • He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.

    5. To deal out by inches

      To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.

    6. A small island

      A small island; an islet.

      • The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.

    7. 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 beyond.

    8. 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
      • 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!!

    9. to burn (to insult)

      to burn (to insult); to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner

    10. A town in County Wexford, Ireland.

The neighborhood

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, inchwide, in for an inch, in for a mile, Little Big Inch, metric inch, microinch, miner's inch, pixels per inch, pyramid inch, slinch, square inch, twelve-inch, united inch, within an inch of one's life, within an inch of one's skin, inch along, inch away · +7 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at inch. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01inch02distance03away04aside05human06sapiens07homo08homosexual09bar

A definitional loop anchored at inch. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at inch

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA