The expression, feel the pinch , has been used since the sixteenth century.
The famous English writer William Shakespeare wrote something very close to this in his great play "King Lear."
King Lear says he would accept necessity's sharp pinch. He means he would have to do without many of the things he always had.
Much later, the Times of London newspaper used the expression about bad economic times during the eighteen sixties.
It said, "so much money having been spent ... All classes felt the pinch."
Worse than feeling the pinch is being up against it . The saying means to be in a lot of trouble.
Word expert James Rogers says the word "it" in the saying can mean any and all difficulties.
He says the saying became popular in the United States and Canada in the late nineteenth century.
