inch

/ɪnt͡ʃ/

inch noun: an English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm.

Noun (1)

inch (plural inches or (UK colloquial) inch, abbreviation in /in. or ″)

An English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm.
- One rule of thumb is that the width of an adult thumb can approximate a length of one inch.
- The sledges of the Esquimaux are of large size, varying from six and a half to nine and even eleven feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth.1873, Charles Tomlinson, chapter III, in Winter in the Arctic Regions and Summer in the Antarctic Regions, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, →OCLC, page 122
(figuratively) Any very short distance.
- Don't move an inch!
- Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.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...
Any of various similar units of length in other traditional systems of measurement.
- At the time of Augustus, the Roman inch was standardized at a length about 3% shorter than the modern English one.
A depth of one inch on the ground, used as a measurement of rainfall.
- Expect around 2 inches of rain on Saturday afternoon.
- Let us consider what one inch of rain really means. If an acre of land were covered with water to the depth of only the tenth part of an inch, that layer of water would weigh more than 10 tons: thus 1 inch of rain is ten times that amount—in fact, very nearly 101 tons.1880, Arthur Herbert Church, Food: Some Account of Its Sources, Constituents and Uses, London: Chapman and Hall, page 14
A depth of one inch in a glass, used as a rough measurement of alcoholic beverages.
- My partner only drinks about a 1 inch pour with dinner, leaving the rest of the bottle for me.

Verb (1)

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

(intransitive) To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).
- Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.
- On reaching the section under construction they must be capable of inching the train forward on rough track up gradients as steep as 1 in 30.1951 October, “London Transport Battery Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 659
To drive by inches, or small degrees.
- He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.

Noun (2)

inch (plural inches)

(Ireland, Scotland) A small island; an islet.
- The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.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....
(Ireland, Scotland) A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.
- 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 6
- 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[,]...1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 22

Adjective

inch

(Hong-Kong, colloquial) cocky and cheeky
- 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 RS1994 May 29, Albert Ng, soc.culture.hongkong (Usenet)
- 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!!2006 June 12, killgirl, OpenRice
Synonyms:

inchy

Verb (2)

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

(Hong-Kong, colloquial) to burn (to insult); to speak in a cocky and cheeky manner
- 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...1994 March 4, tp...@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu, soc.culture.hongkong.entertainment (Usenet)

Proper noun capitalized: Inch

Inch

A town in County Wexford, Ireland.

inch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

inch in Hindi

English unit of length and traditional equivalents: इंच iñc

inch in Tamil

English unit of length and traditional equivalents: அங்குலம் aṅkulam

inch in Urdu

English unit of length and traditional equivalents: انچ inc

inch in Bengali

English unit of length and traditional equivalents: ইঞ্চি inci

More languagesFewer languages

inch in Telugu: అంగుళము aṅguḷamu, ఇంచి iñci, ఈంచి īñci, ఈంచు īñcu
inch in Malayalam: ഇഞ്ച് iñcŭ
inch in Kannada: ಅಂಗುಳಮು aṅguḷamu
inch in Punjabi: ਇੰਚ
inch in Gujarati: તસુ tasu
inch in Odia: ଇଞ୍ଚ, ଇଞ୍ଚ୍
inch in Sinhala: අඟල් aⁿgal
inch in Assamese: ইঞ্চি io͂si
inch in Nepali: इन्च, इन्चमा
inch in Tagalog: dali, timuro
inch in Arabic: بُوصَة būṣa, شِبْر šibr
inch in Malay: inci
inch in Indonesian: inci, dim
inch in Persian: اینچ inč
inch in Thai: นิ้ว níu
inch in Vietnamese: tấc Anh, inh, insơ, inch
inch in Myanmar: လက်မ lakma.

Examples of inch in a sentence

The term "precision measurement" […] refers to the art of reproducing and controlling dimensions expressed in thousandths of an inch or smaller.1939, The Department of Education of International Business Machines Corporation, chapter I, in Precision Measurement in the Metal Working...
Youth worker Rob, 25, is 5’ 3” tall but measures 6’ 6” around his girth – just an inch less than the height of England’s beanpole striker Peter Crouch.2012 March 7, Richard Smith, “I'm wider than I am tall: 35 stone Rob measures 6ft 6in around his waist”, in Daily Mirror, archived from the...
[B]e the consequences what they may, they shall not move an inch, nor a hair's-breadth from the ground of their groundless spiritual independence, […]1840, Lewis Rose, chapter III, in An Humble Attempt to Put an End to the Present Divisions in the Church of Scotland, and to Promote Her...
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.2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in the Telegraph:

All 40 example sentences with inch

Synonyms of inch

inchy

Forms of inch

Noun
plural	inches
abbreviation	in
abbreviation	in.
abbreviation	″
plural UK (colloquial)	inch
Verb
third-person singular present	inches
present participle	inching
past participle	inched
past	inched

Plural of inch: inches

Origin of inch

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.

From Scots inch, from Scottish Gaelic innis.

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

Phrases with inch

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with inch

Questions about inch

What does inch mean?: Inch means an English unit of length equal to 1/12 of a foot or 2.54 cm.
What is inch in Hindi?: Inch in Hindi is इंच (iñc). See Inch meaning in Hindi.
How do you use inch in a sentence?: The term "precision measurement" […] refers to the art of reproducing and controlling dimensions expressed in thousandths of an inch or smaller.
What part of speech is inch?: Inch can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce inch?: Inch is pronounced /ɪnt͡ʃ/.
What is the plural of inch?: The plural of inch is inches.

Words near inch in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: inch (page history and authors); Inch (page history and authors); ഇഞ്ച് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); inch (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ইঞ্চি (Assamese) (page history and authors); inch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-inch.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-inch.wav.

Cite this entry: “inch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/inch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.