Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tongs |
TongsNoun1. Any of various devices for taking hold of objects; usually have two hinged legs with handles above and pointed hooks below. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "tongs" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Metallurgy | Handing tool with two articulated claws allowing objects of generally cylindrical shape to be held(crucibles, billets, barrels, etc. ). Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | One of the various tools or wrench devices that can be made to fit andgrasp drill rods, casing, or drivepipe. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
the first, as in the common fire-tongs, used for picking up pieces of coal and placing them on a fire, which have long arms terminating in small flat circular grippers and are pivoted close to the handle;
the second, as in the sugar-tongs, asparagus-tongs, and the like, consisting of a single band of metal bent round or of two bands joined at the head by a spring,
and third, such as the blacksmith's tongs or the crucible-tongs, in which the pivot or joint is placed close to the gripping ends. A special form of tongs is that known as the "lazy-tongs," consisting of a pair of grippers at the end of a series of levers pivoted together like scissors, the whole being closed or extended by the movement of the handles communicated to the first set of levers and thence to the grippers, the whole forming an extensible pair of tongs for gripping and lifting things at a distance.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tongs."
Synonym: TongsSynonym: pair of tongs (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Attack | Ride full tilt against; attack tooth and nail, go at hammer and tongs. |
Exertion | Adverb: laboriously; Adjective: lustily; pugnis et calcibus; with might and main, with all one's might, with a strong hand, with a sledge hammer, with much ado; to the best of one's abilities, totis viribus, vi et armis, manibus pedibusque, tooth and nail, unguibus et rostro, hammer and tongs, heart and soul; through thick and thin; (perseverance) a. |
Furnace | Fireplace, gas fireplace; coal fire, wood fire; fire-dog, fire-irons; grate, range, kitchener; caboose, camboose; poker, tongs, shovel, ashpan, hob, trivet; andiron, gridiron; ashdrop; frying-pan, stew-pan, backlog. |
Irascibility | Cross, cross as crabs, cross as two sticks, cross as a cat, cross as a dog, cross as the tongs; fractious, peevish, acari_tre. in a bad temper; sulky; a; angry. resentful, resentive; vindictive. |
Retention | Clutches, tongs, forceps, pincers, nippers, pliers, vice. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Tongs |
| English words defined with "tongs": coal tongs ♦ fire tongs, Fire-set, From off ♦ Grappling tongs ♦ Hand flus ♦ ice tongs ♦ Sugar tongs ♦ Tue-irons. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "tongs": Cross as the Tongs ♦ logging tongs ♦ pick tongs, plate tongs. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "tongs": Tenaille. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I never delivered a baby before, and I just thought that ice tongs were the way to do it. (Zelig; writing credit: Woody Allen.) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Terror of the Tongs (1961) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Consumer Goods |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Art Ganz of RI DEM "tongs" for quahogs during the process of locating appropriate donor sites for the quahog spawner sanctuaries. "Tonging" was the traditional method for harvesting quahogs from RI Bay waters. The newer generations of shellfishermen use "bullrakes". Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Oyster tongs and nippers. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |
 | Hardware fragments. Measured drawing delineated by Frederic Lansing, 1936. (Reproduction Number: HABS NJ-16, sheet 27 of 27) The wrought-iron hardware depicted in this HABS drawing comes from a Dutch Colonial house built sometime between 1677 and 1720 by David des Marest, a French Huguenot and immigrant to the American Colonies from the Netherlands. The hinges may have been part of the original building or may have been added later as part of an improvement project during the colonial period. The stone pestle for grinding and the wrought-iron fire tongs and horse's bit were also found around the house. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | U.S. American National Red Cross Hospital No.2, Paris, France. : Ice tongs used for traction. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Tongs" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 98.41% of the time. "Tongs" is used about 63 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 98.41% | 62 | 42,755 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 1.59% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 63 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "tongs": a pair of tongs ♦ breakout tongs ♦ chain tongs ♦ coal tongs ♦ curling tongs ♦ fire tongs ♦ go at hammer and tongs ♦ Grappling tongs ♦ hammer and tongs ♦ ice tongs ♦ Lazy tongs ♦ pair of tongs ♦ pipe tongs ♦ punching tongs ♦ sugar tongs ♦ wafer tongs ♦ weeding tongs. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "tongs": curling-tongs. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "tongs"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | pincetë (tweezers), pincë (barnacle, crimper, forceps, nippers, pincers, pincette, pinchers, pliers, wire cutter, wire cutters), mashë (cat's paw, dummy, fire-iron, poker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كماشة (pincers, pliers), كماشات (nippers, pincers, pinchers, pliers), ملقط, ملاقيط (tweezers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | щипци (extractor, forceps, nippers, pincers, pinchers, pliers), клещи (claw, clip, clippers, pincer movement, pincers, pincers movement, pinchers, pliers), маша (cats paw, cat's paw, curling irons, curling tongs, fire-irons, hatchet man, instrument, tool). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | '子 (plier, Pliers, Tong), 夾鉗 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | tvarovací kleštì, uchopovací kleštì. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tang (brace, cutter's pliers, dogs, forceps, gripper, nipper, pincer, pliers, strut, tweezers, wrack). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | schaar (pincers, scissors). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | prenilo, pinĉilo (pincers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | tong (pair of pincers, pincers), klípitong. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | upokaspihdit (lifter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | pinces (tools). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Zange (claw, double lock, forceps, nipper, nippers, pincers, pliers, tones). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | λαβίδα (nipper, pinchers, tweezers), τσιμπίδα (forceps, nipper, nippers, pincers, pliers, poker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מלקחים (forceps, pliers), מלחצים (pincers, vice, vise), יתוך, צבת (bundle of ears of corn, nippers, pincers, pliers, sheaf, tweezers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | fogó (clamp, extractor, forceps, grapple, grasping, gripping, handhold, handle, holder, it, nippers, pair of forceps, pliers, prehensile, tagger, to be `it`, to be it), cukorfogó (pair of sugar-tongs, sugar tongs, sugar-tongs). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | catut (black marketer, forceps, pincer, tweezer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | pinzette (pincers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 金鋏 (shears), 火箸 , トロイヤ群 (toilette, ton-kilometer, Tonkin, Toronto, Trojan group, trolleybus, trombone, trompe-l'oeil, TRON, trophy, tropical, tropical drink, tropical fish, tropical fruits, tropical plant, trot, Trotskism, Trotskist, truck, tunnel, tunnel diode, twilight, you and I). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | トング , ひばし, かなばさみ (shears). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 집게 (Tong). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | cloughyn (fire tongs). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | tange. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ongstay tenaz (close, firm, forceps, persistent, retentive, sturdy, tenacious). (various references) cleşte (a pair of tongs, claw, clipper, clippers, nipper, pair of pincers, pincers, pliers, spike-drawer). (various references) щипцы (barnacle, curling irons, forceps, pliers, snuffers). (various references) teanchair (pincers, smith's tongs or vice), clobha (a pair of tongs, pair of tongs). (various references) klešta (nipper, nippers, pincers, pliers), hvataljka (grab, pincers). (various references) tenazas (crampon, nail drawer, pair of pincers, pincers, pinchers, pliers). (various references) tång (a pair of tongs, forceps, nippers, pincers, pliers, saweed, seaweed, wrack). (various references) maşa (a pair of tongs, cat's paw, forceps, pincers). (various references) gysgyз (princers), дtiюgir (railroad pliers). (various references) щипці (barnacle, crimper, crowbill, nipper, nippers, pincers, pliers), кліщі (claw, crampon, forceps, pincers). (various references) gefel (pincers). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | forceps. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Exodus Chapter 25, Verse 38 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai ton eparusthra authV kai ta upoqemata authV ek crusiou kaqarou poihseiV |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Emunctoria quoque et ubi quae emuncta sunt extinguantur fient de auro purissimo |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Candelquenchers, and forsothe where the snoffes ben quenchid, be thei maad of moost puyr gold. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | With snoffers and fyre pannes of pure golde. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And its tongs, and its snuff-dishes, shall be of pure gold. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And the instruments and trays for use with it are all to be of the best gold. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Exodus Chapter 25, Verse 38 |
| Bulgarian | Щипците му и пепелниците му да бъдат от чисто злато. |
| Cebuano | Ug ang mga kumpit niini ug ang mga pinggan nga magagmay niini pagabuhaton gikan sa lunsay nga bulawan. |
| Croatian | Usekaèi i pepeljare za njih neka su od èistoga zlata. |
| Danish | Dens Lampesakse og Bakker skal være af purt Guld. |
| Dutch | Zijn snuiters en zijn blusvaten zullen louter goud zijn. |
| Finnish | Ja sen lamppusakset ja karstakupit olkoot puhdasta kultaa. |
| French | Ses mouchettes et ses vases cendre seront d`or pur. |
| German | und Lichtschneuzen und Löschnäpfe von feinem Golde. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Buatlah alat untuk membersihkan sumbu pelita dan talamnya juga dari emas murni. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka segala sepitnya dan pemadamnya hendaklah dari pada emas semata-mata suci. |
| Italian | I suoi smoccolatoi e i suoi portacenere saranno d'oro puro. |
| Maori | Me koura parakore ano ona kuku me ona oko ngarahu. |
| Norwegian | Lysesaksene og brikkene som hører til, skal være av rent gull. |
| Portuguese | Os seus espevitadores e os seus cinzeiros serão de ouro puro. |
| Rumanian | Mucqrile wi cenuwarele lui sq fie de aur curat. |
| Russian | Й ЭЙ "Щ Л ОЕНХ Й МПФЛЙ Л ОЕНХ ЙЪ ЮЙУФПЗП ЪПМПФБ; |
| Spanish | También sus despabiladeras y sus platillos serán de oro puro. |
| Swedish | Och lamptänger och brickor till den skall du göra av rent guld. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words ending with "tongs": biltongs, jelutongs, quantongs. (additional references) | |
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"Tongs" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Tiong, toggs, toings, tongas, tonges, tongu, tongy, Tonms, tonys, Toong, toung, tounges, toungs, tsong. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-n-o-s-t" | |
-1 letter: nogs, snog, snot, song, togs, tong, tons. | |
-2 letters: gos, got, nog, nos, not, ons, son, sot, tog, ton. | |
-3 letters: go, no, on, os, so, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-n-o-s-t" | |
+1 letter: ingots, mongst, stingo, strong, tangos, thongs, tigons, tongas. | |
+2 letters: agonist, amongst, congest, costing, gentoos, gitanos, gnomist, gnostic, gunshot, hognuts, hosting, longest, nougats, noughts, onstage, ousting, outguns, outings, outsang, outsing, outsung, posting, shotgun, sooting, sorting, stingos, stoking, stoning, stoping, storing, stowing, throngs, tiglons, tongers, tongues, tossing, tousing, trigons, trogons. | |
+3 letters: agnostic, agonists, angstrom, antilogs, antismog, biltongs, boasting, boatings, bongoist, boosting, cantdogs, coagents, coasting, coatings, cognates, congests, congrats, egestion, escoting, estragon, estrogen, foisting, footings, frosting, gemstone, genitors, ghosting, gigatons, glasnost, gluttons, gnomists, gnostics, goatskin, grantors, gunboats, gunshots, gunstock, hangouts, histogen, hoisting, ignitors, jingoist, joisting, jostling, jottings, jousting, kingpost, magnetos, megatons, mitogens, montages, negatons, negators, nonguest, nothings, octagons, organist, outgains, outgnaws, outgrins, outrings, outsings, positing, postings, ringtoss, roasting, rontgens, roosting, rousting, scooting, scouting, shooting, shorting, shotguns, shotting, shouting, signpost, slotting, snooting, snorting, snouting, solating, songfest, songster, soothing, sopiting, southing, sporting, spotting, spouting, stegodon, stobbing, stocking, stodging, stomping, stooging, stooking, stooling, stooping, stopping, storming, storying, stroking, stronger, strongly, strongyl, strowing, stroying, sturgeon, swotting, tangelos, toasting, tonights, tonnages, toolings, toppings, toughens, tourings, tousling, unsought, worsting, wrongest, youngest. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 6F 6E 67 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- --- -. --. ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01101111 01101110 01100111 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T o n g s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 006F 006E 0067 0073 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5481807385 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Bible Trace 14. Derivations 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
