Home UK English pinchbeck

Meaning of pinchbeck in English:

pinchbeck

Pronunciation /ˈpɪn(t)ʃbɛk/

noun

mass noun

  • An alloy of copper and zinc resembling gold, used in watchmaking and cheap jewellery.

adjective

  • Appearing valuable, but actually cheap or tawdry.

    ‘Of course, Muggeridge was unreformed, and when he actually decided to take religion seriously he was contemptuously dismissed as ‘a pinchbeck Savonarola’.’
    • ‘The first had been newly choreographed by Ashton and looked for the most part like little more than a pinchbeck parody of a Soviet-style solo.’
    poor-quality, second-rate, third-rate, substandard, low-grade, inferior, common, vulgar, shoddy, trashy, tawdry, tinny, brassy, worthless, meretricious, cheap and nasty, cheapjack, gimcrack, Brummagem, pinchbeck

Origin

Mid 18th century named after Christopher Pinchbeck (died 1732), English watchmaker.