cinch

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɪntʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

• Audio (US)

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Borrowed from Occitan cencha or Spanish cincha (“a belt or girth”), from Late Latin cingula, from Latin cingulum. Doublet of cingle.

cinch (plural cinches)

1. A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.
   • He found Andy morosely replacing some broken strands in his cinch, and he went straight at the mooted question. — B. M. Bower, The Flying U's Last Stand
2. (informal) Something that is very easy to do.

   No problem ... it's a cinch.

   • Major Archibald Lee Fletcher, Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns

     We thought we had a cinch on getting out by way of this cord and so we followed that.

3. (informal) A firm hold.
   • You've got the cinch on him. You could send him to quod, and I'd send him there as quick as lightning. I'd hang him, if I could, for what he done to Lil Sarnia. — Gilbert Parker, The World For Sale,

• (something that is very easy to do): See also Thesaurus:easy thing

cinch (third-person singular simple present cinches, present participle cinching, simple past and past participle cinched)

1. To bring to certain conclusion.
2. To tighten down.

• 1911, "I intend to cinch that government business." — Margaret Burnham, The Girl Aviators' Sky Cruise
• 2016, Christopher Kelly, The Pink Bus. Mapple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press. p. 49.

  "You know I've been thinking about your idea, and I think we should vote for each other," Patrick said, hoping that maybe this would be enough to cinch an actual friendship with Baffi--something that suddenly felt more important to Patrick than anything else in the world.

• cincher

Compare senses at etymology 1 (a girth, a tight grip), perhaps suggesting the tactics used in the game; or perhaps from Spanish cinco (“five”), the five spots of the colour of the trump being important cards.

cinch (plural cinches)

1. (card games) A variety of auction pitch in which a draw to improve the hand is added, and the five of trumps (called "right Pedro") and the five of the same colour (called "left Pedro", and ranking between the five and the four of trumps) are each worth five. Fifty-one points make a game.

• double Pedro
• high five

cinch (third-person singular simple present cinches, present participle cinching, simple past and past participle cinched)

1. (card games) In the game of cinch, to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.

• cin

From Vulgar Latin *cinque, from Latin quīnque.

cinch

1. five

cinch m (uncountable)

1. five