Word.ws English Dictionary

on a pinch

on a pinch is the archaic form of at a pinch.

Meaning of at a pinch

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, UK, idiomatic, informal) by a small margin or amount
  2. (idiomatic) In an urgent or difficult situation; when no other solution is available.
    Synonyms:
    in a pinch

Questions about on a pinch

What is on a pinch the archaic form of?
On a pinch is the archaic form of at a pinch.

Words near on a pinch in the dictionary

  1. on a losing wicket
  2. on a mission
  3. on a need-to-know basis
  4. on a pair
  5. on a par
  6. on a pinch
  7. on a plate
  8. on a platter
  9. on a promise
  10. on a regular basis
  11. on a roll

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a pinch (page history and authors); at a pinch (page history and authors). 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:

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