pinch
n. countablen. a tiny amount of something, usually as much as you can hold between your thumb and finger. You use this word most often when cooking or adding small amounts of powder.
n. the amount of a substance that can be held between the thumb and forefinger. Often used figuratively to describe a small or negligible quantity of an abstract quality.
Add a pinch of salt to the soup.
The chef suggested adding a pinch of dried herbs to the sauce just before serving to brighten the flavor.
While the data suggests a significant trend, most analysts recommend taking the preliminary results with a pinch of salt until the full study is published next year.
From Middle English pinchen, from Old Northern French pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”)), a word of uncertain origin, possibly from Vulgar Latin pinciāre (“to puncture, pinch”), from a merger of punctiāre (“to puncture, sting”), from Latin punctiō (“a puncture, prick”) and piccāre (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). More at point, pick and pitch.
Commonly used in the fixed phrase 'a pinch of [noun]'.
a pinch salta pinch of saltThe noun requires the preposition 'of' before the substance being measured.