ˈpinch-gut, n. (a.) Now Obs. or vulgar.
[f. pinch- + gut.]
1. One who stints himself or others of food: = pinch-belly (pinch-).
| a 1659 Lady Alimony ii. ii, A Mundungo's Monopolist, a paltry-penurious-pecking pinchgut. 1699 T. Brown in R. L'Estrange Erasm. Colloq. (1711) 356 Did old Pinch-gut devour all his grey-pease by himself? 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pinch-gut, a covetous person, who will neither fill his own belly nor suffer his dependants to do so. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pinch-gut, a miserly purser. |
2. attrib. or adj. a. That pinches the stomach; niggardly or scanty in respect of food; in quot. 1682, characterized by scarcity of food. b. pinch-gut money (Naut. slang): money allowed to sailors in compensation for short allowance of food.
| 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 35 A pinch-gut Miser fell extreamely sicke. 1660 in 7th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 141 John Price..complains that Richard Hutchinson has wronged him by paying {pstlg}16, besides Pinchgutt mony, to a wrong person. 1682 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 65 (1713) II. 156 'Twas..promised, that the poor Prisoners should have Amends..for that pinch-gut Year they had. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Pinch-gut-money, allow'd by the King to the Seamen,..on Bord the Navy.., when their Provision falls Short. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pinch-gut pay, the short allowance money. |
So † ˈpinch-gutted a., pinched in the stomach, famished.
| 1704 N. N. tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. III. 349 To satisfie so many hungry, ravenous,..pinch-gutted Fellows. |