Nibble vs Pinch - What's the difference?
nibble | pinch |
A small, quick bite taken with the front teeth.
(in the plural, nibbles) Small snacks such as crisps/potato chips or nuts, often eaten to accompany drinks.
To eat with small, quick bites.
* 2 November 2014 , Alex James in (The Guardian),
*:Giant parrots nibbled seed from the children's fingertips and my sister peeled a couple of satsumas for the lemurs.
* 1911 , (Rudyard Kipling), Big Steamers
*:"For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble ,
*:The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve,
*:They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers--
*:And if anyone hinders our coming you'll starve!"
To bite lightly.
To consume gradually.
* 11 May 2011 , Ann Carrns in The (New York Times),
*:A report out this week from the National Consumer Law Center lays out a host of ways in which banks nibble away at jobless benefits with fees the center called “junk.”
(computing) A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or four bits.http://foldoc.org/nibble
* 1993 , Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to computer engineering (page 287)
To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
To steal, usually of something almost trivial or inconsequential.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 13
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd
, work=BBC Sport
(slang) To arrest or capture.
(horticulture) To cut shoots]] or [[bud, buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
(nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
(hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
(obsolete) To be niggardly or covetous.
* Franklin
To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
* Chapman
(figurative) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
* Sir Walter Raleigh
To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
* 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 171:
An organic herbal smoke additive.
As nouns the difference between nibble and pinch
is that nibble is a small, quick bite taken with the front teeth or nibble can be (computing) a unit of memory equal to half a byte, or four bitshttp://foldocorg/nibble while pinch is the action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.As verbs the difference between nibble and pinch
is that nibble is to eat with small, quick bites while pinch is to squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.nibble
English
Etymology 1
Perhaps from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)Derived terms
* nibblyVerb
(nibbl)- The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.
The day I came face-to-face with a tiger
- He nibbled at my neck and made me shiver.
Prepaid Cards Subject Jobless to Host of Fees
Etymology 2
From nibble', punning on the homophony of '''byte''' and ' biteAlternative forms
* nybbleNoun
(en noun)- That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.
References
pinch
English
Verb
(es)- The children were scolded for pinching each other.
- This shoe pinches my foot.
- Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
citation, page= , passage=Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.}}
- (Gower)
- the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
- He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
- to be pinched for money
- want of room pinching a whole nation
Noun
(es)- It took nerve and muscle both to carry the body out and down the stairs to the lower hall, but he damn well had to get it out of his place and away from his door, and any of those four could have done it in a pinch', and it sure was a ' pinch .