▪ I. cinch, n.
(sɪntʃ, sɪnʃ)
Also sinch, synch.
[ad. Sp. cincha girth, cingle.]
1. The saddle-girth used in Mexico, and the adjacent parts of the United States, usually made of separate twisted strands of horse-hair. U.S.
| 1866 J. K. Lord Brit. Columb. I. 234 One girth only is used, styled a ‘synch’, made of horsehair. 1872 C. King Mountain. Sierra Nev. vi. 119, I leaned down and felt of the cinch, to see if it had slipped. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2186/2., Sinch. 1878 Tuttle Border Tales ix. 35 The whole is fastened by a broad ‘belly-band’, termed a sinch. Ibid. 38 The first hard pull is made upon the sinch. 1884 Joaq. Miller Memorie & Rime 168 Colonel Bill had just set the rowels of his great Spanish spurs in the broad cinch in order to push his horse. 1888 Lees & Clutterbuck B.C. 1887 xxi. (1892) 229 A synch (girth) of ordinary size. |
2. fig. A firm or secure hold; a sure, safe, or easy thing; a dead certainty. Also attrib. orig. U.S.
| 1888 N.Y. World 22 July (Farmer), The racehorse owner, who has a cinch bottled up for a particular race. 1904 G. V. Hobart Jim Hickey iv. 54 We'll have to stand by Amy and the kid, that's a cinch, Danny! 1904 G. H. Lorimer Old Gorgon Graham 8 A man's son is entitled to a chance in the business, but not a cinch. a 1910 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 208 ‘It's tough to be alone in New York—that's a cinch,’ said Mr. Donovan. Ibid. 252 The devil seems to have a cinch on all the business in New York. 1911 H. Quick Yellowstone N. iii. 69 The recent progress in bacteriological science..seemed to make the diagnosis a cinch. 1923 R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean iv. 73 Going to sea was a perfect cinch with just enough to do to keep a fellow healthy. 1930 P. Macdonald Link ix. 169 My God! As far as I'm concerned it's a cinch. 1936 A. Huxley Eyeless in Gaza xxv. 353 ‘How would you like to be called a fever frau?’ he asked his younger daughter... ‘Or worse, a cinch pushover, my dear?’ 1957 New Yorker 29 June 67/1 From there on, it was a relative cinch. |
3. Cards. A variety of all-fours, also called double pedro and high five.
| 1889 in Dict. Americanisms, I found that sinch is the great North-western game of cards, a recent invention. 1892 Outing (U.S.) Jan. 287/2 Fellers, I brung Dave over fur a game o' cinch, an' we kin hev a squat round fur a couple o' hours. 1946 Morehead & Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 57 Cinch, a partnership game for four players, is the aristocrat of the high-low-jack games. |
▪ II. cinch, v. U.S.
(sɪnʃ)
Also sinch, synch.
[f. cinch n.]
1. (Also with up.) trans. To fix (a saddle, etc.) securely by means of a girth; to fix (a girth). Also transf., of clothing: to girdle, pull in.
| 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Speech 2 Oct. (1923) 13 They never cinch a Californian's horse tight enough. 1866 J. K. Lord Brit. Columb. I. 234 The saddle is firmly ‘synched’. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xv. 273 With all set and everything tightly ‘cinched’, we took the start. 1878 Tuttle Border Tales ix. 36 All soon learn to swell themselves out when being sinched. 1884 Joaq. Miller Memorie & Rime 56 The..Californian sinched his little mule till she grunted. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 457/1 As the moment for the start approaches, the saddles are cinched tighter. 1905 A. Adams Outlet 310 Saddles were..cinched on waiting horses. 1910 J. Hart Vigilante Girl x. 143 Each mule would carefully blow himself up to prevent his girth being cinched too tightly. 1912 Mulford & Clay Buck Peters iv. 58 Buck cinched up his saddle on Allday and let him out of the stable. 1915 J. London Jacket 54 They call it [lacing the jacket] ‘cinching’ in prison lingo. 1957 New Yorker 16 Nov. 150/2 A shirt-topped..sheath..cinched in with a three-inch-wide self cummerbund. 1961 Times 24 Jan. 12/5 Cinched-in dresses and coats. 1966 Harper's Bazaar Sept. 50 Smashing glitter of..sequins cinching the body, banding matt black crêpe. |
b. intr. To fix a saddle-girth.
| 1887 St. Nicholas XIV. 732 At Giles's ranch, on the divide, the party halted to cinch up. 1913 Mulford Coming of Cassidy ii. 35 Cinching deftly, [he] slung himself up by the stirrup. |
2. fig. To get (a person) into a tight place; to secure a hold upon. (See also quot. 1875.)
| 1875 Scribner's Mag. July 277 (Hoppe) A man is cinched = he is hurt in a mining transaction (San Francisco localism). 1881 N.Y. Times 18 Dec. in N. & Q. V. 65/1 It is unfairly said that the Northern Pacific Company intends to ‘cinch’ the settlers by exacting large prices for its lands. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. 239 To use an expressive Californian phrase, capital, and especially accumulated capital, wherever it was found, was to be ‘cinched’. 1904 F. Lynde Grafters ix. 125, I have it on pretty good authority that the ring is cinching the other companies right and left. 1910 T. Roosevelt in Outlook 3 Sept. 2/1 If the rich man strives to use his wealth to destroy others, I will cinch him if I can. 1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap vii. 292 I'm cinched for hell, anyway, and don't have to make it tighter by torturing poor dumb brutes. |
b. To make certain of (something); to render (something) conclusive. slang.
| 1900 Dialect Notes II. 27 (College words) Cinch, to make sure of anything. 1903 A. H. Lewis Boss 315 Melting Moses..goes after him to cinch the play. I tell you one thing; he cinches it. 1910 W. M. Raine B. O'Connor 25 That extra hour and a half cinches our escape. 1924 R. Lardner How to write Short Stories (1926) 335 It'll be pretty soft for you, because they got the pennant cinched and they'll cut you in on the big money. 1930 D. Hammett Maltese Falcon xix. 231 He's not a fall-guy unless he's a cinch to take the fall. Well, to cinch that I've got to know what's what. 1964 New Statesman 10 Apr. 571/1 English readers shouldn't be put off by Professor Shattuck's Texan manner of what he calls ‘cinching’ an argument. |
3. In the game of cinch: to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.
| 1889 in Dict. Amer. Eng., Prevent him from making as many points as he has agreed to make. If he fails to make good his offer, he is ‘sinched’. 1946 Morehead & Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 59 If no higher trump has been played, third hand must usually cinch a trick by playing some higher trump than the five. |