inched

past tense of inch
1
as in encroached
to advance gradually beyond the usual or desirable limits every year the water inches further up the embankments, threatening to permanently engulf the island city

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of inched Ford's sales of internal combustion vehicles, those that run on gasoline, inched up 2% in August to 160,762 gasoline cars sold. Jamie L. Lareau, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2025 Ford's sales of internal combustion vehicles, those that run on gasoline, inched up 2% in August to 160,762 gasoline cars sold. Jamie L. Lareau, Freep.com, 3 Sep. 2025 More than half of the city is at or below sea level, and with coastal erosion and the loss of wetland, the Gulf of Mexico inched closer every year before Katrina. Avalon Hester, People.com, 28 Aug. 2025 Broward condo sales inched up by more than 130 properties as the median prices dipped a bit. Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 26 Aug. 2025 Treasury yields inched higher as investors continue to digest Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech last Friday and look toward key inflation data due later in the week. Sean Conlon,lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 25 Aug. 2025 Across the nine-county area, median sales prices held steady and even inched up slightly, despite a 20% increase in active listings. Collyn Wainwright, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025 Incremental progress toward some sort of resolution for the speedway has inched forward in the years since then. Austin Hornbostel, Nashville Tennessean, 20 Aug. 2025 However, that has inched up slightly since last month. Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inched
Verb
  • The ads have now encroached into social media without proper disclosures with many online pharmacies not following the same rules that many pharmaceutical companies follow, a senior White House official said.
    Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2025
  • From the deadly 2025 Los Angeles fires to the devastating 2019-2020 Australian bushfires and the 2018 wildfire in Athens, Greece, flames have increasingly encroached upon human settlements, claiming lives and livelihoods.
    Seyd Teymoor Seydi, The Conversation, 21 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Homeland Security officials said Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez resisted arrest and dragged an officer in his car.
    Michael Loria, USA Today, 12 Sep. 2025
  • An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man who resisted arrest and dragged the officer during a vehicle stop in a Chicago suburb Friday morning, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
    Priscilla Alvarez, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • On Wednesday, a similar scene closely followed as the funeral procession for Kansas City, Kansas, police officer Hunter Simoncic crawled along through the highways and streets in the community Simoncic worked to keep safe.
    Emily Curiel, Kansas City Star, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Eby crawled across a ladder over the water to the vehicle, then crawled back with the child on his back, the video shows.
    Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Chicago's wild card lead over the San Diego Padres has crept down to just two games with a little under three weeks remaining in the season.
    Andrew Wright, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The jobs report from July shattered the narrative that the economy of 2025 was strong, revising previous figures downward and revealing something close to an 80% collapse in hiring, even as inflation crept upwards and layoffs rolled.
    Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Budget cuts are about to bring big changes to San Diego’s 37 neighborhood library branches — including shorter hours, shuffled staff and rescheduled activities.
    David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Over the past two months, he’s been shuffled through three detention centers despite attempts to pay a bond set by the immigration judge.
    Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 22 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • No movie poked holes in the stereotypical puffy rock-star ego more effectively than Spinal Tap did, and there are legions of fans who have the film almost completely memorized.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 11 Sep. 2025
  • After the cyberstalking ordeal came to an end and started making national news, the Wilsons poked fun at Kendra's fate by dressing up a scarecrow in a prison jumpsuit with a mask of her mugshot over its face, per The Cut.
    Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 11 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inched.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inched. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.

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