half-inch

English

Verb

half-inch (third-person singular simple present half-inches, present participle half-inching, simple past and past participle half-inched)

1. (transitive, Cockney rhyming slang) To pinch, to steal.
   • 1942 December 9, “Rope”, in Punch, page 501:

     No cox'n will ever be hanged; he will always have "half-inched" the rope from the hangman first.

Noun

half-inch (plural half-inches)

1. Alternative form of half inch

References

• “half-inch v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “half-inch, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.