pincers - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A pair of carpenter's pincers

From Middle English pynsours, from Old French pinceure, pinchure, from pincier (“to pinch”).

pincers

  1. plural of pincer

pincers pl (plural only)

  1. A gripping tool, pivoted like a pair of scissors, but with blunt jaws.
    • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 107:
      Milk formed their chief diet, and this they were supposed to imbibe from the witch herself, from a third "teat" which had been made beneath the arm by a nip from the Devil's pincers.
  2. The front claws of crustaceans such as lobsters.

front claws