1300–50; Middle English vis < Old French: screw < Latin vītis vine (whose spiral form gave later sense)
< French, past participle of viser to inspect, check; see visa
If you’re going to be doing a lot of woodworking, you’ll probably need a vise, a tool used to clamp pieces of wood in place while you work on them. The word vise came into English through the French word vis, meaning “screw.” Picture yourself winding a lever that screws the jaws of a vise shut, and you’ll understand what it’s like to operate a vise. Remember to spell the word with an s, as not to confuse it with sound-alike vice, which can refer to a destructive habit that you’d like to break. The two words are unrelated in meaning.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
State Legislatures are caught in a legal vise.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 13, 2025
Koufax created a vise between his middle finger and the knuckle on his ring finger.
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2024
It’s no cause for alarm, but it felt as if a vise were being twisted tighter and tighter around my chest.
From Slate • Nov. 26, 2023
Wall Street dropped after big U.S. companies delivered a mixed set of profit reports and rising Treasury yields tightened the vise further on the stock market.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 18, 2023
My mom’s hand is a vise on my upper arm.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
