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
But the same vise they’re in is being felt acutely by many governmental and nontech private concerns, like restaurants.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
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
Forty weeks later, six trillion cells get crushed in the vise of our mothers birth canal and we howl.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
This, the United States Lines contended, often worked an injustice, because immigrants might book passage, sell their homes, and then discover that the consul would not visé their passports.
From Time Magazine Archive
My home-circle was like a ring without its jewel, while I, an undenominated waif in search of a visé, was fluttering through the duchy of Baden.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 by Various
The visé was refused as perfectly unnecessary; and even at Ajaccio, where we passed some hours at the Préfeture, our passports were returned to us on mere inspection.
From Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. by Forester, Thomas
Employing a swift motor-car, he obtained the official visé at Madrid, and was back at the rendezvous within two and a half hours, the atrocious roads notwithstanding.
From The Airship "Golden Hind" by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
I shall pass you only upon his visé.
From The Secret Witness by Gibbs, George
My man looked up in mild surprise, viséed the three papers without a word and handed them back in less time than it takes to tell it.
From A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium by Gibson, Hugh
He struck a smarter gait, but to me it seemed a year ere he reappeared with a pass viséed, and handed it to me.
From The Reckoning by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)
You shall have it back properly viséed by nine o'clock to-morrow morning.
From The Yellow Streak by Williams, Valentine
Sandy viséed Keith's accounts and took Keith's check for the balance, placing it to a personal account for Molly.
From Rimrock Trail by Dunn, J. Allan, (Joseph Allan)
"It is not yet viséed by your consul," said the officer.
From The Goose Girl by MacGrath, Harold
It is well built on narrow streets, like nearly all Italian cities, and manifests considerable activity in the way of watching gates and viséing Passports.
From Glances at Europe In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. by Greeley, Horace
On the present occasion, the Hamburger was detained a considerable time, whilst I exercised, at my leisure, my belligerent right of viséing his papers.
From Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States by Semmes, Raphael
We have already recommended charging consuls with viséing certificates from police, medical, and poor-relief authorities.
From The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 by Various
The French insisted on viséing our papers in order to show their authority and because they needed the ten francs.
From The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the Ægean by Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
Much higher bills were seen at less frequently vised restaurants, like Chick-fil-A, Capriotti’s and Taco Bell, which cost the state about $25,100, $20,300 and $13,300, respectively.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 26, 2019
The current owner, Barbara Jenik, opened the door, an aggrieved Chihuahua vised into her armpit.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2017
John McCoy, finding his right arm vised between the girder and the roof of his cab, let out a yell that brought firemen, a priest and a doctor.
From Time Magazine Archive
Methodism, vised by its geographical Bishop, promised to repay the money owed you.
From Time Magazine Archive
You seem almost a man these days, Jeth; even yore hair ain’t quite as yaller and curly as it vised to be.”
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
There is just time left to confirm that Anderson and Piper are both more regular customers at Pizza Express than Prince Andrew, who famously told Maitlis about vising the chain.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2024
Opposition politicians also are vising the region en masse, with the Republican People’s party leader Ozgur Ozel attending the commemorations in Hatay before travelling to Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
Tile drains are then placed directly under the curb line and a 6×16-in. curb is constructed, vising 1-2-4 concrete faced with 1-2 mortar.
From Concrete Construction Methods and Costs by Gillette, Halbert Powers
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.
