pincers

[ pin-serz ]
See synonyms for pincers on Thesaurus.com
noun(usually used with a plural verb)
  1. a gripping tool consisting of two pivoted limbs forming a pair of jaws and a pair of handles (usually used with pair of).

  2. Zoology. a grasping organ or pair of organs resembling this, as the claw of a lobster.

Origin of pincers

1
1300–50; Middle English pinsers, earlier pynceours, plural of *pinceour<Anglo-French pince(r) to pinch + -our-or2
  • Also pinch·ers [pin-cherz] /ˈpɪn tʃərz/ .

Words Nearby pincers

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pincers in a sentence

  • And the nightmare clutch laid hold upon his heart with giant pincers.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • Some of the figures are being roasted, twitched with red-hot pincers, partly baked, or forced to swallow fire.

  • He was conscious of a brief pain in one finger, and the next instant someone tore the finger out of his hand with red hot pincers.

    Insidekick | Jesse Franklin Bone
  • He had put on a stone-cloth shirt, and seizing iron pincers, he lifted off an iron cover.

    Balsamo, The Magician | Alexander Dumas
  • The pincers gripe, the pliers handle; the one is like the closed hand, the other like the fingers.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo

British Dictionary definitions for pincers

pincers

/ (ˈpɪnsəz) /


pl n
  1. Also called: pair of pincers a gripping tool consisting of two hinged arms with handles at one end and, at the other, curved bevelled jaws that close on the workpiece: used esp for extracting nails

  2. the pair or pairs of jointed grasping appendages in lobsters and certain other arthropods

Origin of pincers

1
C14: from Old French pinceour, from Old French pincier to pinch

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for pincers

pincers

[ pĭnsərz ]


  1. A jointed grasping claw of certain animals, such as lobsters and scorpions.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.