Pinched means drawn and thin from cold, hunger or worry. A pinched face, pinched with cold, looking pinched.
It describes a face that has narrowed under strain, and it is one of the most economical words in English for showing hardship without naming it. Applied to circumstances it means straitened: pinched budgets, feeling the pinch. Note pinch as a verb, meaning both to squeeze and, in British slang, to steal; and a pinch of salt, which is a real measure of about a sixteenth of a teaspoon.
1adjectivepinchedDrawn and thin from cold, hunger or worry.
“After weeks of hunger, the children's faces were pale and pinched.”
2adjectivestraitenedStraitened, of money or circumstances.
“They lived in pinched circumstances after her father lost his job.”
pinched is a state of being drawn thin.
Proto-Germanic
*pikkōną — to pick, peck, prick
Frankish
*pikkōn
Latin
punctiō — a puncture, prick
Vulgar Latin
*pincio — to puncture, pinch
fro-nor
*pinchier
Middle English
pinchen
English
pinch
English, today
pinched
Built from
pinch comes from Middle English pinchen, from fro-nor pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”)), a word of unknown origin, possibly from Vulgar Latin pincio (“to puncture, pinch”), from a merger of punctiō (“to puncture, sting”), from Latin punctiō (“a puncture, prick”) and picco (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). More at point, pick and pitch.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA