in a pinch

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.

Example Sentences

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

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

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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.

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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.

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Catalina, one of the Channel Islands, is about an hour’s ferry ride from Long Beach; it’s challenging for crews to get there in a pinch, Barton said.

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