Word.ws English Dictionary

pincer

/ˈpɪnsəɹ/

pincer noun: any object that resembles one half of a pair of pincers.

pincer: any object that resembles one half of a pair of pincers
Image: Bernard Spragg. NZ from Christchurch, New Zealand, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pincer (plural pincers)

  1. Any object that resembles one half of a pair of pincers.

Verb

pincer (third-person singular simple present pincers, present participle pincering, simple past and past participle pincered)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To surround with a pincer attack.
    • After considering all frontal counteroffensive alternatives, Heublein rejected them as detrimental to its profits and came up with a brilliant pincering maneuver. It raised the price of Smirnoff by one dollar, effectively preventing segment diffusion, […]1984, Robert Lamb, Competitive Strategic Management, page 115
    • The minesweeper and the sea tug now came along either side, pincered the Vega, and seemed to be ushering it toward Moruroa, perhaps attempting to push the ketch inside the 12-mile limit.2004, Rex Weyler, Greenpeace

pincer meaning in Tamil and Urdu

pincer in Tamil

இடுக்கி

pincer in Urdu

زنبور

Examples of pincer in a sentence

  • Each of the chelicerae is composed of two articles, forming a powerful pincer.
  • The 30-inch stainless steel tongs have scissor-like pincers that you operate with one hand while working a shorter, third appendage with the other hand.
  • "But Belarus is a hard nut to crack, and it has used these methods to slip out of these East-West pincers before," says Alexander Klaskovsky.

All 10 example sentences with pincer

Forms of pincer

Noun
pluralpincers
alternative formpincher
Verb
third-person singular presentpincers
present participlepincering
past participlepincered
pastpincered

Origin of pincer

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

Words formed from pincer

Phrases with pincer

Questions about pincer

What does pincer mean?
Pincer means any object that resembles one half of a pair of pincers.
What is pincer in Tamil?
Pincer in Tamil is இடுக்கி. See Pincer meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is pincer?
Pincer can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pincer?
Pincer is pronounced /ˈpɪnsəɹ/.
What is the plural of pincer?
The plural of pincer is pincers.

Words near pincer in the dictionary

  1. pincainide
  2. pincase
  3. pincases
  4. pince-nez
  5. pince-nezed
  6. pincer
  7. pincer attack
  8. pincer attacks
  9. pincer gate
  10. pincer gates
  11. pincer movement

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pincer (page history and authors); pincer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pincer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pincer.wav.

Cite this entry: “pincer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pincer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.