pinching off
Squeezing to remove
Pinching off means separating something by squeezing it between thumb and finger.
Gardeners pinch off dead blooms or unwanted shoots to redirect growth: Pinch off the suckers on your tomato plants.
The phrase extends to any removal by constriction—pinching off blood flow, pinching off a piece of clay.
In crude slang, to pinch off a loaf is to defecate.
- severingCutting apart completely
- detachingUnfastening from attachment
- breaking offHalting abruptly mid-action
- pruningCutting vegetation for health
- cell divisionParent splitting into offspring
constricting · cytokinesis · budding · crimping · vesicle · cell membrane · exocytosis · abscission · cut · clip · clamping · squeezing · plucking · slice · deadheading · gardening · garden shears · tearing
pinching offcutting
Dividing via sharp edge
slicing · snipping · shearing · scissoring · clipping
pinching offattaching
Joining to something else
joining · connecting · grafting · fusing · affixing
pinching offopening up
Becoming less guarded
releasing · unclamping · freeing · unblocking · dilating