Dictionaries › English

inch

Pronunciation: /ɪnt͡ʃ/

The English word “inch” has 12 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm.
  2. Any very short distance.
  3. Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
  4. A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
  5. A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.
  6. A small island; an islet.
  7. A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.

verb

  1. To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
  2. To drive by inches, or small degrees.
  3. To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.
  4. to burn (to insult); to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner

adjective

  1. cocky and cheeky

Etymology

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

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “inch” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.