inch

See also: Inch

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɪnt͡ʃ/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

Etymology 1

From Middle English ynche, enche, from Old English ynce, borrowed from Latin uncia (“Roman inch, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Doublet of a, one, ounce, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.

Alternative forms

in, in.

Noun

inch (plural inches)

An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm, roughly the width of a thumb.
(figuratively) Any very short distance.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iv]:
  Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.
Don't move an inch!
Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
(meteorology) A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.

Derived terms

Big Inch
cubic inch
every inch
inchmeal
inch-perfect
in for an inch, in for a mile
Little Big Inch
square inch
within an inch of one's life

Descendants

→ Assamese: ইঞ্চি (io͂si)
→ Hindi: इंच (iñc)
→ Indonesian: inci
→ Japanese: インチ (inchi)
→ Korean: 인치 (inchi)
→ Serbo-Croatian: и̏нч
→ Swahili: inchi
→ Turkish: inç
→ Vietnamese: inh
→ Yoruba: ínǹsì

Translations

English unit of length and traditional equivalents

Afrikaans: duim (af)
Albanian: inç m
Arabic: بُوصَة‎ f (būṣa), شِبْر‎ m (šibr)
Armenian: դյույմ (hy) (dyuym)
Azerbaijani: düymə (az), düym
Belarusian: дзюйм m (dzjujm), ца́ля f (cálja)
Bengali: ইঞ্চি (bn) (iô͂ci)
Breton: meutad (br) m
Bulgarian: инч m (inč), дюйм (bg) m (djujm)
Burmese: လက်မ (my) (lakma.)
Catalan: polzada f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 英寸 (zh) (yīngcùn)
Czech: palec (cs) m, coul (cs) m
Danish: tomme (da) c
Dutch: duim (nl) m
Esperanto: colo
Estonian: toll (et)
Faroese: tummi m
Finnish: tuuma (fi)
French: pouce (fr) m
Galician: pulgada f
Georgian: დუიმი (duimi)
German: Zoll (de) n
Greek: ίντσα (el) f (íntsa)
Gujarati: તસુ (tasu)
Hebrew: אִינְץ׳‎ m (intsh)
Hindi: इंच (hi) m (iñc)
Hungarian: hüvelyk (hu)
Icelandic: tomma f, þumlungur m
Ido: inch (io)
Indonesian: inci (id), dim (id)
Irish: orlach (ga) m
Italian: pollice (it) m
Japanese: インチ (inchi)
Kannada: ಅಂಗುಳಮು (aṅguḷamu)
Kazakh: дюйм (düim)
Khmer: អ៊ីញ (ʼiiñ)
Korean: 인치 (ko) (inchi)
Kyrgyz: дюйм (ky) (dyuym)
Lao: ນີ້ວ (nīu)
Latin: uncia f
Latvian: colla f
Lithuanian: colis m
Lü: ᦓᦲᧁᧉ (niiw²)
Macedonian: инч m (inč), цол m (col)
Malay: inci
Middle English: ynche
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: инч (mn) (inč)
Navajo: asdzoh
Norman: pouce m
Northern Thai: ᨶᩥ᩠᩶ᩅ
Norwegian:
Bokmål: tomme (no) m
Occitan: poce (oc) m
Persian: اینچ‎ (fa) (inč)
Polish: cal (pl) m
Portuguese: polegada (pt) f
Romanian: țol (ro) m
Russian: дюйм (ru) m (djujm)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: и̏нч m, цо̑л m
Roman: ȉnč (sh) m, cȏl (sh) m
Sinhalese: අඟල් (aⁿgal)
Slovak: palec m, cól m
Slovene: palec (sl) m
Spanish: pulgada (es) f
Swahili: inchi (sw)
Swedish: tum (sv) c
Tagalog: dali (tl), timuro
Tajik: инч (inč), дюйм (dyuym)
Tamil: அங்குலம் (ta) (aṅkulam)
Tatar: дюйм (dyuym)
Telugu: అంగుళము (te) (aṅguḷamu), ఇంచి (iñci), ఈంచి (īñci), ఈంచు (īñcu)
Thai: นิ้ว (th) (níu)
Turkish: inç (tr)
Turkmen: dýuým
Ukrainian: дюйм (uk) m (djujm), (rare) цаль (uk) m (calʹ)
Urdu: انچ‎ m (inc)
Uzbek: dyuym (uz)
Vaghri: આંગર (ā̃gar)
Vietnamese: tấc Anh, inh (vi), insơ, inch (vi)
Welsh: modfedd (cy) f
Westrobothnian: tåmb m
Yoruba: ínǹsì

unspecified but very short distance

Bulgarian: милиме́тър (bg) m (milimétǎr)
Catalan: centímetre (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 少許 (zh)少许 (zh) (shǎoxǔ), 一點兒 (zh), 一点儿 (zh) (yīdiǎnr)
Czech: kousek (cs) m, kousíček m
Dutch: haarbreed (nl) n
Finnish: piiru (fi)
French: poil (fr) m
Galician: palmo (gl) m, cuarta m
German: Zoll (de) n
Greek: σπιθαμή (el) f (spithamí)
Lithuanian: plaukas m
Middle English: ynche
Norwegian:
Bokmål: tomme (no) m
Polish: włos (pl) m
Portuguese: polegada (pt) f
Swahili: inchi (sw)

Verb

inch (third-person singular simple present inches, present participle inching, simple past and past participle inched)

(intransitive, followed by a preposition) To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.
- 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:
  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.
- 2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in the Telegraph‎:
  Already guarding a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Blackpool inched further ahead when Stephen Dobbie scored from an acute angle on the stroke of half-time. The game appeared to be completely beyond Birmingham’s reach three minutes into the second period when Matt Phillips reacted quickly to bundle the ball past Colin Doyle and off a post.
To drive by inches, or small degrees.
- 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
  He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.
To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.

Derived terms

inch along
inch forward
inch up
inchworm

Translations

to move very slowly

Finnish: hivuttautua (fi), edetä hitaasti
German: sich zentimeterweise fortbewegen
Italian: muoversi poco a poco
Portuguese: movimentar-se pouco a pouco OR movimentar-se aos poucos
Swahili: inchi (sw)

Etymology 2

From Scottish Gaelic innis.

Noun

inch (plural inches)

(Scotland, Ireland) A small island; an islet.
- 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], OCLC 1001655651:
  The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.
(Scotland, Ireland) A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.
- 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 6:
  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.
- 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 22:
  As these calves grew older they did not need to return to the farmyard for feeding as they were able to eat sufficient grass for themselves. They were then kept in the fields, known as the inches, along by the river[,] where they grew strong[,] and during the winter cold when grass was scarce[,] hay was carried down to them.

Usage notes

Found especially in the names of small Scottish islands, e.g. Inchcolm, Inchkeith.

Etymology 3

Semantic loan from Cantonese 寸 (cyun³, “inch”), which is an alternative form of 串 (cyun³, “cocky; to provoke; etc.”).

Adjective

inch (not comparable)

(Hong Kong, colloquial) cocky and cheeky
- 1994 May 29, Albert Ng, soc.culture.hongkong, Usenet‎:
  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
- 2006 June 12, killgirl, OpenRice‎:
  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!!

Synonyms

inchy

Verb

inch (third-person singular simple present inches, present participle inching, simple past and past participle inched)

(Hong Kong, colloquial) to humiliate; to provoke; to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner
- 1994 March 4, tp...@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu, soc.culture.hongkong.entertainment, Usenet‎:
  Sorry for changing the intention of the post last time; it was for nothing but the personal joy and satisfaction of "inch"-ing the person who criticized my writing while he/she can't even write. (no hard feelings, alright?!) I'd avoid that in the future. I'll try to make this a constructive discussion and be as objective as possible.

Anagrams

Ch'in, Chin, HNIC, chin, ichn-

Middle English

Noun

inch

Alternative form of ynche

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English inch.

Noun

inch m (plural inchi)

inch
Synonym: țol

Declension

Declension of inch

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) inch	inchul	(niște) inchi	inchii
genitive/dative	(unui) inch	inchului	(unor) inchi	inchilor
vocative	inchule		inchilor