tong

¹ American  

[tawng, tong] / tɔŋ, tɒŋ /

noun

1. tongs.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to lift, seize, gather, hold, or handle with tongs, as logs or oysters.

verb (used without object)

1. to use, or work with, tongs.

tong ² American  

[tawng, tong] / tɔŋ, tɒŋ /

noun

1. (in China) an association, society, or political party.

2. (among Chinese living in the U.S.) a fraternal or secret society, often associated with criminal activities.

---

tong ¹ British  

/ tɒŋ /

verb

1. to gather or seize with tongs

2. to curl or style (hair) with curling tongs

---

tong ² British  

/ tɒŋ /

noun

1. (formerly) a Chinese secret society or association, esp one popularly assumed to engage in criminal activities

---

tong Idioms  

1. see hammer and tongs.

---

Other Word Forms

• tonger noun

Etymology

Origin of tong¹

before 900; 1865–70, tong ¹ for def. 2; Middle English tong ( e ) (singular), tongen, tonges (plural), Old English; cognate with Dutch tang, German Zange pair of tongs or pincers; akin to Greek dáknein to bite

Origin of tong²

1880–85, < dialectal Chinese (Guangdong) tòhng, akin to Chinese táng meeting hall

Example Sentences

Raymond James analyst Olivia Tong expects second-quarter organic sales to rise just 0.2% from a year ago due to “weaker consumption data in the U.S., exacerbated by the government shutdown.”

From Barron's

Raymond James analyst Olivia Tong expects second-quarter organic sales to rise just 0.2% from a year ago due to “weaker consumption data in the U.S., exacerbated by the government shutdown.”

From Barron's

The crew of one of the vessels, known as the Kapitan Kostichev, then emptied 700,000 barrels of Russian crude into the tanks of the other, the Jun Tong, according to ship-tracking service Kpler.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Jun Tong, known as the Fair Seas until January 2024 and the Tai Shan until August, set a course for the Chinese port of Yantai.

From The Wall Street Journal

In addition to Wu, authors of the study "Break-induced replication is activated to repair R-loop-associated double-strand breaks in SETX-deficient cells" include Tong Wu, Youhang Li, Yuqin Zhao and Sameer Bikram Shah of Scripps Research; and Linda Z. Shi of the University of California San Diego.

From Science Daily