vise

¹

Or vice

[vahys]

noun

1. any of various devices, usually having two jaws that may be brought together or separated by means of a screw, lever, or the like, used to hold an object firmly while work is being done on it.

verb (used with object)

vised, vising 

1. to hold, press, or squeeze with or as with a vise.

visé

²

[vee-zey, vee-zey]

noun

viséed, viséing 

1. visa.

vise

/ vaɪs /

noun

1. a variant spelling of vice 2

Other Word Forms

• viselike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of vise¹

1300–50; Middle English vis < Old French: screw < Latin vītis vine (whose spiral form gave later sense)

Origin of vise²

< French, past participle of viser to inspect, check; visa

Example Sentences

When she contracted Asian flu, the virus paralyzed her with “a vise cluster of migraines.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

America is caught in a vise—on one side, “America first”; on the other, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her crowd, whose New York breakthrough would strengthen totalitarian temptations.

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The risk: “It will further tighten the fiscal vise,” Gourinchas writes.

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State Legislatures are caught in a legal vise.

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An examination of the tightening vise in which Jews in the Netherlands—whether German-Jewish refugees like the Franks or longtime residents—found themselves is hampered, again, by storytelling problems.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal