cinch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A girth for a pack or saddle.
2. n. A firm grip.
3. n. Something easy to accomplish. See Synonyms at breeze¹.
4. n. A sure thing; a certainty.
5. v. To put a saddle girth on.
6. v. To get a tight grip on.
7. v. Informal To make certain; secure or guarantee: cinch a victory.
8. v. To tighten a saddle girth. Often used with up.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A saddle-girth made of leather, canvas, or woven horsehair.
2. To gird with a cinch.
3. Hence To bind or subdue by force.
4. To tighten the cinch: used with up.
5. n. A firm hold or grip on anything.
6. n. A fine position or situation; an easy job; a ‘snap.’
7. n. A variety of all-fours, sometimes called double pedro and high-five. In addition to the points for high, low, jack, and game, the five of trumps (right pedro) is worth 5, and the five of the same color (left pedro) is also worth 5, so that 14 points are made in every deal, all in the trump suit. Nine cards are dealt to each player, three at a time. Each player, in turn, has one bid for the privilege of naming the trump suit, the number offered being what the player thinks he can make with his partner's assistance, but no one is allowed to mention the suit he purposes to select. The highest bidder names the trump, and then each player, in turn, discards everything but trumps, the dealer giving him cards from the top of the pack to make the hand up to six cards, with which he plays. The maker of the trump leads any card he pleases, and the object of the players is to secure the counting cards and also to ‘cinch’ tricks, so that an opponent cannot save a pedro by trumping in. After the hand is played the points are counted and, if the bidder has made as many as he offered, the lower score is deducted from the higher, the difference counting toward game, which is 51 points. If the bidder fails, the adversaries add the amount of his bid to any points they make, the unsuccessful bidder scoring nothing.

Wiktionary

1. n. A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.
2. n. informal Something that is very easy to do.
3. n. informal A firm hold.
4. v. To bring to certain conclusion.
5. v. To tighten down.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. West. U. S. A strong saddle girth, as of canvas.
2. n. colloq. A tight grip.
3. v. Western U. S. To put a cinch upon; to girth tightly.
4. v. Slang, U. S. To get a sure hold upon; to get into a tight place, as for forcing submission.
5. v. Western U. S. To perform the action of cinching; to tighten the cinch; -- often with up.
6. n. 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 color (called left pedro, and ranking between the five and the four of trumps) each count five on the score. Fifty-one points make a game. Called also double pedro and high five.
7. v. In the game of cinch, to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. stable gear consisting of a band around a horse's belly that holds the saddle in place
2. v. tie a cinch around
3. v. make sure of
4. n. any undertaking that is easy to do
5. v. get a grip on; get mastery of
6. n. a form of all fours in which the players bid for the privilege of naming trumps