pipe wrench

American  

noun

1. a tool having two toothed jaws, one fixed and the other free to grip pipes and other tubular objects when the tool is turned in one direction only.

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Etymology

Origin of pipe wrench

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

I am like Picasso with a putty knife, and Rembrandt with a pipe wrench.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 5, 2016

Although he’d occasionally see his father with a pipe wrench, he wondered about the stream of people going into and out of the apartment.

From Washington Times • Feb. 1, 2015

I found it inside a state government office building in Pennsylvania, languishing on a shelf between a gardening trowel and a pipe wrench.

From Washington Post • Jan. 22, 2015

“You can’t just drop your pipe wrench and say ‘O.K., it’s 5 o’clock, I’m going home,’ and they still don’t have water to their house,” he said.

From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2014

I got Dad his knife with the carved bone handle and the blade of blue German steel, and he gave me a pipe wrench, and we went looking for Demon.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls