Pinchbeck

adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An alloy of copper and zinc once used as imitation gold for cheap jewelry. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    an alloy of copper and zinc that is used in cheap jewelry to imitate gold wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Made of pinchbeck. not-comparable

    "on the inside were suspended a variety of watches, pinchbeck, silver, and one or two of gold"

  2. 2
    Sham; spurious, artificial; being a cheap substitution; only superficially attractive.

    "Where, in these pinchbeck days, can we hope to find the old agricultural virtue in all its purity?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    serving as an imitation or substitute wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A village and civil parish in South Holland district, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom (OS grid ref TF2425). countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A surname. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
counterfeitaffectedalloyapocryphalartificialassumed

Example

More examples

"on the inside were suspended a variety of watches, pinchbeck, silver, and one or two of gold"

Etymology

Named after Christopher Pinchbeck, an 18th century London watchmaker who developed the alloy.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.