| 释义 |
pincers, n. pl.|ˈpɪnsəz|
Rarely (exc. in comb.) in sing. form pincer. Forms: 4 pynceours, 4–5 pinsours, 4–7 -sers, 5 pynsors, -sours, 6 -cors, -sores, pinsars, 6–7 -sors, 6– pincers.
[In ME. pinsour(s, pynsour(s, -or(s, pynceour(s, app. AF. agent-n. from pincer vb.: see pinch; cf. OF. pinchure pincers, tongs, pinçoir a clip used as a book-mark; mod.F. pince (Cotgr. pinces) pincers. See also pinson1.]
1. a. A tool for tightly grasping or nipping anything, consisting of two limbs pivoted together, forming a pair of jaws with a pair of handles or levers by which they can be pressed tightly together. (Commonly a pair of pincers; rarely a pincers.)
1338Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 376, j par de Pynceours de ferro. 1371Ibid. 129, j par de pinsers. c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xii, Kut ye a litell of her clees with pynsors. 1555Eden Decades 187 Two mouthes lyke vnto a paire of smaule pinsers. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. v. viii. (1886) 86 S. Dunstan lead the divell about the house by the nose with a paire of pinsors or tongs. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. xii. 16 A paire of Pincers in his hand he had, With which he pinched people to the hart. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 11 A Wood-Louse..hath two pointers also before, like a pair of pincers. 1719Young Revenge v. ii, The flesh will quiver, where the pincers tear. 1796Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 201 A pointed instrument to raise the wick, a small pincers to prune it. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 188/2 The flask is then removed from the fire by wooden pincers.
sing.14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 570/18 Capana, a pynsour. 1483Cath. Angl. 280/2 A paire of Pynsours (A. A Pynsoure). 1570Levins Manip. 76/3 Pincer, forpeculæ.
fig.1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §33 (1864) 524 He [Newton] has always his mind ready to seize it with the mathematical pincers.
b. Mil. = pincer(s) movement in sense 3 b below.
1942T. Rattigan Flare Path ii. i. 38 There wasn't anything fresh, I suppose. No pincers on anything anywhere? 1969G. Macbeth War Quartet 73 Firing turn by turn, Encircling him with pincers..At last..we killed him. 1978J. A. Michener Chesapeake 638 [In 1863] southern armies were involved in a stupendous march north in an effort to create a pincers which would curl back to engulf Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington itself. The end of the war seemed at hand.
2. An organ (or pair of organs), in various animals, resembling pincers, and used for grasping or tearing; as the chelæ of crustaceans, the incisor teeth of a horse, etc.
1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. Ep. Ded., Their [green locusts'] pincers..are as sharp as keen rasors. 1713Addison Guardian No. 156 ⁋7 Every Ant brings a small particle of that earth in her pincers. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 554 The feet of animals which scramble among rocks are provided with pincers. 1880Huxley Crayfish iii. 95 A living crayfish is able to perform very varied movements with its pincers.
3. a. Comb., as pincer-grip; pincer-like adj.; pincer-leg = sense 2.
1611Cotgr., Louve de fer..the (pinser-like) hooke of a Crane, &c. 1860Carlyle Let. to Ruskin 29 Oct., in Eng. Illustr. Mag. Nov. 105, I marvel in parts..at the pincer-grip..you take of certain bloated cheeks and blown-up bellies. 1870Rolleston Anim. Life 142 Two terminal processes which make up a pincer-like organ. 1909Daily Chron. 20 Aug. 4/4 Note the disparity in the size of the two large pincer-legs. 1941H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful v. iii. 249 When confronted by a pincer-like movement, a soldier and a gentleman abandons his men and material and bolts home. 1962D. Nichols Echinoderms viii. 101 The two living classes with relatively non-flexible exterior surfaces, the echinoids and asteroids, are provided with almost unique pincer-like organs, the pedicellariae.
b. Mil. Used attrib., esp. in pincer(s) movement, to designate an operation involving the convergence of two forces on an enemy position like the jaws of a pair of pincers; a double envelopment; also transf. and fig.
1929Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 314/2 Pincer drive, an enveloping drive launched from two sides of an objective. 1939Auden & Isherwood Journey to War ix. 225 The Japs were to be..destroyed by the time-honoured pincer-movement. 1944S. Putnam tr. E. da Cunha's Rebellion in Backlands x. 458 As may be seen, it was a vigorous pincers movement which was thus planned. 1954T. Gunn Fighting Terms 34 Planning when you have least supplies or clothing A pincer-move to end in an embrace. 1959Listener 28 May 919/2 At one end of the barrier the Soviet Union is conducting a pincer movement on Persia, from Transcaucasia and Iraq. 1968Times 8 Oct. 7/7 Hardened layers of sediment which accumulated on the bottom of the Tethys Sea and were later thrust up to the surface by the pincer movement of the two continental masses. 1973Times 9 Aug. 17/1 The pincer movement against Unilever—soaring commodity prices..on the one hand, and selling price controls..on the other—is beginning to bite. 1975D. Bagley Snow Tiger xiv. 120 Rickman and Lyall are cooking up something... It'll be a pincer movement. |