different between pinch vs want

English

Etymology

From Middle English pinchen, from Old French *pinchier, pincer (“to pinch”), from Vulgar Latin *pinci?re (“to puncture, pinch”), from possible merger of *puncti?re (“a puncture, sting”), from Latin puncti? (“a puncture, prick”) and *picc?re (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish *pikk?n, from Proto-Germanic *pikk?n? (“to pick, peck, prick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Verb

pinch (third-person singular simple present pinches, present participle pinching, simple past and past participle pinched)

1. To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.

   The children were scolded for pinching each other.

   This shoe pinches my foot.

2. To squeeze between the thumb and forefinger.
3. To squeeze between two objects.
4. (slang, transitive) To steal, usually something inconsequential.

   Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
5. (slang, transitive) To arrest or capture.
6. (horticulture) To cut shoots or buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
7. (nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
8. (hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
9. (obsolete, intransitive) To be stingy or covetous; to live sparingly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

   • 1788, Benjamin Franklin (attributed), Paper

     the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare

10. To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
11. (figuratively) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.

    to be pinched for money

    • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

      want of room […] which pincheth the whole nation

    • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2:

      The Christian also spurns the pinched and mumping sick-room attitude, and the lives of saints are full of a kind of callousness to diseased conditions of body which probably no other human records show.

12. To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
13. (obsolete) To complain or find fault.
    • 1809, Alexander Chalmers ed. The Works of the English Poets, from Cahucer to Cowper, Vol. 1, modern rendering of poem imputed to Geoffrey Chaucer, "A Ballad which Chaucer made in Praise or rather Dispraise of Women for their Doubleness":

      Therefore who so them accuse

      Of any double entencion,

      To speake, rowne, other to muse,

      To pinch at their condicion,

      All is but false collusion,

      I dare rightwell the sothe express,

      They have no better protection,

      But shrowd them vnder doubleness.

Derived terms

• pinch off
• pinch out
• pinch a loaf

Translations

Noun

pinch (plural pinches)

1. The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
2. A close compression of anything with the fingers.

   I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.

3. A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
4. An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
   • 1955, Rex Stout, "Die Like a Dog", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ?ISBN, page 171:

     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.

5. A metal bar used as a lever for lifting weights, rolling wheels, etc.
6. An organic herbal smoke additive.
7. (physics) A magnetic compression of an electrically-conducting filament.
8. The narrow part connecting the two bulbs of an hourglass.
   • 2001, Terry Pratchett: Thief of Time:

     It looked like an hourglass, but all those little glittering shapes tumbling through the pinch were seconds.

9. (slang) An arrest.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (pinchi)

Translations

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wanten (“to lack”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanat?n? (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?weh?- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan, wan-.

Alternative forms

• waunt (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/
• (US) enPR: w?nt, w?nt, wônt IPA^(key): /w?nt/, /w?nt/, /w?nt/
• (General Australian) enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/
• (General New Zealand) enPR: w?nt, w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/, (nonstandard) /w?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt, -?nt, -??nt
• Homophone: wont

Verb

want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)

1. (transitive) To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave or demand. [from 18th c.]
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     I want to find a supermarket. — Oh, okay. The supermarket is at 1500 Irving Street. It is near the apartment. — Great!

   1. (by extension) To make it easy or tempting to do something undesirable, or to make it hard or challenging to refrain from doing it.

      The game developers of Candy Crush want you to waste large, copious amounts of your money on in-game purchases to buy boosters and lives.

      Depression wants you to feel like the world is dark and that you are not worthy of happiness. The first step to making your life better from this day forward is to stop believing these lies.

2. (transitive, in particular) To wish, desire, or demand to see, have the presence of or do business with.

   Ma’am, you are exactly the professional we want for this job.

   Danish police want him for embezzlement.

   • 2010, Fred Vargas, The Chalk Circle Man, Vintage Canada (?ISBN), page 75:

     But now it's different, if the police want him for murder.

3. (intransitive) To desire (to experience desire); to wish.
   • 2019 May 5, "The Last of the Starks", Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4 (written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss):

     TYRION: You don't want it?

     BRAN: I don't really want anymore.

4. (colloquial, usually second person, often future tense) To be advised to do something (compare should, ought).

5. (transitive, now colloquial) To lack and be in need of or require (something, such as a noun or verbal noun). [from 15th c.]
   • 1741, The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741-1794, page 559:

     The lady, it is said, will inherit a fortune of three hundred pounds a year, with two cool thousands left by an uncle, on her arriving at the age of twenty-one, of which she wants but a few months.

   • 1839, Chambers's Journal, page 123:

     Oh Jeanie, it will be hard, after every thing is ready for our happiness, if we should be sundered. It wants but a few days o' Martinmas, and then I maun enter on my new service on Loch Rannoch, where a bonny shieling is ready ...

   • 1847, The American Protestant, page 27:

     In this we have just read an address to children in England, Ireland, and Scotland, in behalf of children who want food to keep them from starvation.

   • 1866, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7:

     “Your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Chapter 2:

     The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.

6. (transitive, now rare) To have occasion for (something requisite or useful); to require or need.
   • 1742, Edward Young, Night Thoughts:

     Man wants but little, nor that little long.

   • 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, Hermit, in The Vicar of Wakefield:

     Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.

   • 1854', Henry David Thoreau, Walden Economy

     [...] for my greatest skill has been to want but little.

7. (intransitive, dated) To be lacking or deficient or absent. [from 13th c.]
   • , Preface

     The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting or imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life.
8. (intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.

   • You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want.

9. (transitive, archaic) To lack and be without, to not have (something). [from 13th c.]
   • 1765, James Merrick, Psalams

     Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!

   • 1981, A. D. Hope, "His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell," A Book of Answers:

     Pray Mr Marvell, can it be / You think to have persuaded me? / Then let me say: you want the art / To woo, much less to win my heart.

10. (transitive, obsolete, by extension) To lack and (be able to) do without.
    • 1797, The European Magazine, and London Review, page 226:

      For Law, Physick and Divinitie, need so the help of tongs and sciences, as thei can not want them, and yet thei require so a hole mans studie, as thei may parte with no tyme to other lerning, ...

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb want had the form wantest, and had wantedst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form wanteth was used.

Synonyms

• (desire): set one's heart on, wish for, would like
• (not to have): lack, be without
• (require): need, be in need of

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chinese Pidgin English: wantchee, ??

Translations

Noun

want (countable and uncountable, plural wants)

1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence, deficiency.

   A want of sense.

   • For Want of a Nail:

     For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

     For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

     For want of a horse the rider was lost.

     For want of a rider the battle was lost.

     For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

     And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 4, sc. 8:

     [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
3. (uncountable) Poverty.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, A Preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction

     Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.

4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
   • 1785, William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

     Habitual superfluities become actual wants.

5. (Britain, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

Derived terms

• want ad
• wantful
• wantless
• wantsome
• wanty

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wont (“mole”), from Old English wand, wond, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/

Noun

want (plural wants)

1. (dialectal) mole (Talpa europea)

Further reading

• want at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Anagrams

• tawn

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch want, from Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwand?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vant/

Conjunction

want

1. for, because

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt/
• Hyphenation: want
• Rhymes: -?nt
• Homophone: wand

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandê.

Conjunction

want

1. for, because, as

   Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. — He is not coming, because he is sick. (Note: The order is SVO after want.)

Synonyms

• dewijl

Hyponyms

• omdat
• doordat

Descendants

• Afrikaans: want

See also

• aangezien
• omdat
• vermits

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch *want, from Frankish *wantu, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz.

Noun

want f (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. A mitten, type of glove in which four fingers get only one section, besides the thumb.

Derived terms

• ovenwant

Descendants

• ? Papiamentu: wante

See also

• handschoen

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch want, gewant, from Old Dutch *giwant, from Proto-Germanic *gawand?, from the root of winden.

Noun

want n (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. A course type of woolen fabric; anything made from it.
2. The rigging, ropes supporting masts and sails aboard a ship. shroud, sideways support for a mast.

   Synonyms: touwwerk, wantwerk

3. Various types of nets and snares for fishing, hunting or farming.
4. Horse tackle.

Derived terms

• wantborstel
• wanthuis
• wantschaar

- concerning rigging

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

want

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of wannen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of wannen

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwand?.

Conjunction

want

1. because, for

Descendants

• Dutch: want

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch *want, from Frankish *wantu.

Noun

want m

1. A glove, mitten.

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: want

Further reading

• “want (III)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “want (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “want (V)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page V

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“stick, rod; barrier made of sticks, fence”), whence also Old Norse v?ndr, Gothic ???????????????????????? (wandus).

Noun

want f

1. A wall.

Descendants

• Middle High German: want
  • Central Franconian: Wand, Wank
  • Cimbrian: bant
  • German: Wand
  • Hunsrik: Wand
  • Luxembourgish: Wand
  • Pennsylvania German: Wand
  • Vilamovian: waond
  • Yiddish: ??????? (vant)

Tocharian A

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *w'entë, from Post-PIE *h?weh?ntos, from Proto-Indo-European *h?wéh?nts, from *h?weh?- (“to blow”) (compare English wind, Latin ventus). Compare Tocharian B yente.

Noun

want

1. wind

West Frisian

Alternative forms

• hwant

Etymology

From Old Frisian hwant, hwante, hwande, hwanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandê.

Conjunction

want

1. because

Synonyms

• omdat