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.
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.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2025
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
To the moody strains of Sheik’s alt-rock score, the vise of adolescence is captured in a story about pubescent youths rebelling against the warping will of adult hypocrisy and repression.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2023
The pain came on gradually over several weeks, as if some part of my brain were being slowly squeezed in a vise.
From New York Times • Oct. 4, 2023
My heart felt like somebody had put it in a vise.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
