pick

in a pinch

in a pinch {adv. phr.}, {informal}

In an emergency.

Dave is a good friend who will always help out in a pinch.

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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pinch-hit

[pinch-hit] {v.} 1. To substitute for another player at bat in a baseball game. * /Smith was sent in to pinch-hit for Jones./ 2. {informal} To act for a while, […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

feel the pinch

[feel the pinch] {v. phr.} To be short of money; experience monetary difficulties. * /If we are going to have a recession, everybody will feel the pinch./ A Dictionary of American Idioms

pinch

[pinch] See: [TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT] also [TAKE WITH A PINCH OF SALT], [WHERE THE SHOE PINCHES]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

pride must take a pinch

[pride must take a pinch] One must endure the minor pains and hardships one encounters while being made pretty. - A proverb. * /"Mother," Sue cried, "stop pulling my hair!" […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

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