in a pinch

Idioms  

1. In an emergency, when hard-pressed, as in This music isn't what I would have chosen, but it will do in a pinch. This term dates from the late 1400s, when it was put as at a pinch (a usage still current in Britain); pinch alludes to straitened circumstances.

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Example Sentences

But having spent the past year banging the drum for the UK government to increase taxes rather than make cuts to budgets, the prospect of Rachel Reeves actually doing so has put Swinney and Robison in a pinch.

From BBC

Those are tactics “neither employers nor employees like but companies resort to in a pinch to hold down premium increases,” he noted.

From MarketWatch

The new kickoff rule is giving teams better field position, shortening the field for offenses that need to score in a pinch.

From The Wall Street Journal

You can cut and press the filling into little rectangular pies with crimped edges, like a store-bought toaster pastry, or embrace simplicity with small circular hand pies, made with a biscuit or cookie cutter — or, in a pinch, a wide-mouthed glass or jar.

From Salon

China isn’t buying U.S. soybeans amid the trade war with Washington, leaving American farmers in a pinch, and they have objected to taxpayer funds being used to help a competitor.

From Barron's