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tongs

 
Dictionary: tongs   (tôngz, tŏngz) pronunciation
 
tongs
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tongs
left to right: kitchen and block ice tongs
( School Division, Houghton Mifflin Company)
pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

A grasping device consisting of two arms that are joined, often at one end, as by a pivot or a scissorlike hinge.

[Middle English tonges, pl. of tonge, from Old English tang, tong.]


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Long-handled, about 3 feet, shaped like pincers with knobs on the ends of the grasping blades. Applied by standing behind the subject in a confined space and closing the jaws to grasp the animal's head just below the ears. Used for restraint of pigs and similarly built animals up to about 100 lb body weight.

 
WordNet: tongs
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: any of various devices for taking hold of objects; usually have two hinged legs with handles above and pointed hooks below
  Synonym: pair of tongs


 
Wikipedia: Tongs
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Silicon-tipped locking tongs designed to withstand temperatures up to 500 degrees fahrenheit
Long handled locking tongs designed for outdoor grilling

Tongs are gripping and lifting tools, of which there are many forms adapted to their specific use. Some are merely large pincers or nippers, but the greatest number fall into three classes:

  1. Tongs which have long arms terminating in small flat circular ends of tongs and are pivoted close to the handle, as in the common fire-tongs, used for picking up pieces of coal and placing them on a fire.
  2. Tongs consisting of a single band of metal bent round one or two bands joined at the head by a spring, as in sugar-tongs (a pair of usually silver tongs with claw-shaped or spoon-shaped ends for serving lump sugar), asparagus-tongs and the like.
  3. Tongs in which the pivot or joint is placed close to the gripping ends, such as blacksmith's tongs or crucible-tongs.

The tongs are the most-used cooking utensil when grilling, as they provide a way to move, rotate and turn the food with delicate precision.

A special form of tongs, known as "lazy-tongs," consists 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.

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Translations: Tongs
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Dansk (Danish)
n. pl. - tang, ildtang

Nederlands (Dutch)
tang

Français (French)
n. pl. - pincettes, fer à friser, pince, pinces à salade, pince à sucre

Deutsch (German)
n. pl. - Zange

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - λαβίδα, τσιμπίδα, μασιά

Italiano (Italian)
pinza

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - pinças (f pl), tenazes (f pl)

Русский (Russian)
большие щипцы, каминные щипцы

Español (Spanish)
n. pl. - tenacillas, pinzas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - tång

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
夹具, 钳子, 火钳

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. pl. - 夾具, 鉗子, 火鉗

한국어 (Korean)
n. pl. - 집게, 화젓가락, 머리 인두

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 物を挟む道具, …ばさみ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الجمع) ملقطه, ملقط‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. pl. - ‮מלקחיים‬


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tongs" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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