pincers

[ pin-serz ]

noun

, (usually used with a plural verb)

1. a gripping tool consisting of two pivoted limbs forming a pair of jaws and a pair of handles (usually used with pair of ).
2. Zoology. a grasping organ or pair of organs resembling this, as the claw of a lobster.

pincers

/ ˈpɪnsəz /

plural noun

1. Also calledpair of pincers a gripping tool consisting of two hinged arms with handles at one end and, at the other, curved bevelled jaws that close on the workpiece: used esp for extracting nails
2. the pair or pairs of jointed grasping appendages in lobsters and certain other arthropods

pincers

/ pĭn′sərz /

1. A jointed grasping claw of certain animals, such as lobsters and scorpions.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pincers¹

1300–50; Middle English pinsers, earlier pynceours, plural of *pinceour < Anglo-French pince ( r ) to pinch + -our -or ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of pincers¹

C14: from Old French pinceour, from Old French pincier to pinch

Example Sentences

And the nightmare clutch laid hold upon his heart with giant pincers.

From Project Gutenberg

Some of the figures are being roasted, twitched with red-hot pincers, partly baked, or forced to swallow fire.

From Project Gutenberg

He was conscious of a brief pain in one finger, and the next instant someone tore the finger out of his hand with red hot pincers.

From Project Gutenberg

He had put on a stone-cloth shirt, and seizing iron pincers, he lifted off an iron cover.

From Project Gutenberg

The pincers gripe, the pliers handle; the one is like the closed hand, the other like the fingers.

From Project Gutenberg