tweezers

[ twee-zerz ]

noun(used with a singular or plural verb)
  1. small pincers or nippers for plucking out hairs, extracting splinters, picking up small objects, etc.

Origin of tweezers

1
First recorded in 1645–55; plural of tweezer, equivalent to obsolete tweeze “case of surgical instruments” (aphetic form of earlier etweese, from French étuis, plural of étui, noun derivative of Old French étuier “to keep,” from Latin stūdiāre “to care for”) + -er1
  • Also tweez·er [twee-zer] /ˈtwi zər/ .

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tweezers in a sentence

  • A very rich tweezer-case, containing twelve instruments for the use of each hour in the day.

  • He used a tweezer to change the registers again and gave it a little crank.

    Makers | Cory Doctorow
  • When night came we all went to bed, and lay as close together as herrings in a barrel, or tools in a tweezer-case.

  • Of course, the idea is ridiculous—that is, the tweezer part is.

    Unwise Child | Gordon Randall Garrett

British Dictionary definitions for tweezers

tweezers

/ (ˈtwiːzəz) /


pl n
  1. a small pincer-like instrument for handling small objects, plucking out hairs, etc: Also called: pair of tweezers, (esp US) tweezer

Origin of tweezers

1
C17: plural of tweezer (on the model of scissors, etc), from tweeze case of instruments, from French étuis cases (of instruments), from Old French estuier to preserve, from Vulgar Latin studiāre (unattested) to keep, from Latin studēre to care about

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012