• IPA: /ɪntʃ/

inch (plural inches)

1. A unit of length equal to one twelfth of a foot, or exactly 2.54 centimetres.
2. (meteorology) The amount of water which would cover a surface to the depth of an inch, used as a measurement of rainfall.
3. The amount of an alcoholic beverage which would fill a glass or bottle to the depth of an inch.
4. (figuratively) A very short distance.

   "Don't move an inch!"

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Beldame, I think we watched you at an inch.

• French: pouce
• German: Zoll
• Italian: pollice
• Portuguese: polegada
• Russian: дюйм
• Spanish: pulgada

• French: poil
• German: Zoll
• Portuguese: polegada

inch (inches, present participle inching; past and past participle inched)

1. (intransitive, followed by a preposition) To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).

   Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.

   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:

     The window blind had been lowered — Zooey had done all his bathtub reading by the light from the three-bulb overhead fixture—but a fraction of morning light inched under the blind and onto the title page of the manuscript.

2. To drive by inches, or small degrees.

   • He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.

3. To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.

inch (plural inches)

1. (Scotland) A small island
   • 1805, Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel:

     The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.

1. A town in Wexford, Ireland.