cinch

noun

1. A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.

   “He found Andy morosely replacing some broken strands in his cinch, and he went straight at the mooted question.”

2. (informal)Something that is very easy to do.

   “We thought we had a cinch on getting out by way of this cord and so we followed that.”

   “The job was a snap. I travelled the country averaging a thousand miles a week and, since the previous incumbent had been a lazy bugger, managed to treble the business. It was a cinch.”

3. (informal)Something that is obvious or certain to occur; a sure thing.

   “As a matter of fact, from the look of Elmer's shoulder, it wasn't a cinch that he would ever pitch again.”

4. (informal)A firm hold.

   “You've got the cinch on him. You could send him to quod, and I'd send him there as quick as lightning. I'd hang him, if I could, for what he done to Lil Sarnia.”

5. A variety of auction pitch in which a draw to improve the hand is added, and the five of trumps (called "right Pedro") and the five of the same colour (called "left Pedro", and ranking between the five and the four of trumps) are each worth five. Fifty-one points make a game.
6. (Europe)An RCA connector.

verb

1. To bring to certain conclusion.
2. To tighten down.

   “He let Sandy stand for a minute and then took the saddle off. Several more of these saddlings and unsaddlings followed. Then finally the saddle was cinched. Again Sandy repeated his pattern of calming down after the first unfamiliarity of a new experience had worn off. […] Before long Sandy accepted the saddle as if he’d been born with one on his back.”

   “[Ostriches] also lack the tiny hooks, or barbicels, that cinch feathers together in most other birds.”

   “In our tiny 30-foot schooner, the 40-foot (think four stories high) waves looked more like giant mountains hurtling at us. I cinched the straps on my lifejacket a bit tighter and held on for dear life.”

3. In the game of cinch, to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.