tweezers

English

A pair of stamp tweezers.

Etymology

17th century (1645–55): plural of tweeser (on the model of nippers, pincers, pliers or scissors), from obsolete tweese (“case for small instruments”) (or alternatively, alteration of plural form tweeses), aphetic form of earlier etweese (plural of etwee), from French étuis, plural of étui (“case, box, cover”) (from Old French estui (“container, prison”, noun), derivative of étuier (earlier spelling, estuier (“to shut up, guard, keep, preserve, save, enclose, place in a cover”), probably from Vulgar Latin *estudiāre (“to keep, treat with care”) or *studiāre, from Latin studēre (“to care about”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtwizɚz/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtwiːzəz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

tweezers pl (plural only)

1. A small pincerlike instrument, usually made of metal, used for handling or picking up small objects (such as postage stamps), plucking out (plucking) hairs, pulling out slivers, etc.

Synonyms

• pair of pincers, pincers
• pair of tweezers
• tongs (philatelic)
• tweezer (US)

Derived terms

• optical tweezers

Translations

small pincer-like instrument, usually made of metal, used for handling small objects

• Albanian: pincetë f, piskatore (sq) f
• Arabic: مِلْقَط صَغِير m (milqaṭ ṣaḡīr), مِلْقَط m (milqaṭ)

  Egyptian Arabic: ملقاط m (mulʔāṭ)

  Gulf Arabic: ملقط m (milgaṭ)

• Armenian: պինցետ (hy) (pincʻet)
• Azerbaijani: maqqaş
• Basque: pintzak
• Belarusian: пінцэ́т m (pincét), шчыпцы́ m pl (ščypcý)
• Bulgarian: пинсе́та f (pinséta)
• Burmese: ဇာဂနာ (my) (jaga.na)
• Catalan: pinces (ca) f pl, (nail tweezers) alicates d'ungles f pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鑷子 / 镊子 (zh) (nièzi), 眉毛鉗 / 眉毛钳 (zh) (méimáoqián)

• Czech: pinzeta (cs) f
• Danish: pincet (da) c
• Dutch: pincet (nl) n
• Esperanto: pinĉileto
• Estonian: pintsett
• Finnish: pinsetit (fi) pl
• French: pince à épiler (fr) f, pincette (fr) f
• Georgian: პინცეტი (ka) (ṗinceṭi)
• German: Pinzette (de) f
• Greek: λαβίδα (el) f (lavída)
• Hebrew: פִּינְצֶטָה (he) f (pintséta)
• Hindi: चिमटी (hi) f (cimṭī)
• Hungarian: csipesz (hu)
• Icelandic: flísatöng (is) f, (rare) plokktöng f
• Irish: pionsúirín m
• Italian: pinzetta f
• Japanese: ピンセット (ja) (pinsetto)
• Kazakh: іскек (ıskek), пинцет (pinset)
• Khmer: ចន្ទាស (km) (cɑntiəh), តង្កៀប (km) (tɑngkiəp)
• Korean: 핀셋 (ko) (pinset) (South Korea), 핀세트 (pinseteu) (North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mûçink (ku)

• Kyrgyz: пинцет (pintset), искек (ky) (iskek)
• Lao: ແໜບ (nǣp)
• Latin: volsella f
• Latvian: pincete f
• Lithuanian: pincetas m
• Macedonian: пинце́та f (pincéta)
• Maori: kuku, kopikopi
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хямсаа (mn) (xjamsaa), чимхүүр (mn) (čimxüür)

  Mongolian: ᠬᠢᠮᠰᠠ (kimsa), ᠴᠢᠮᠬᠢᠭᠦᠷ (čimkigür)

• Navajo: beeʼatsʼiʼí, beeʼaʼnizhí, dághá bee yitsʼihí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pinsett (no) m

• Ottoman Turkish: جنبس (cımbıs)
• Persian: موچین (fa) (mučin), موی چینک (muy činak) (Dari)
• Polish: pęseta (pl) f
• Portuguese: pinça (pt) f
• Romanian: pensetă (ro) f
• Russian: пинце́т (ru) m (pincét), щипцы́ (ru) m pl (ščipcý), щи́пчики (ru) m pl (ščípčiki)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пинцѐта f

  Roman: pincèta (sh) f

• Slovak: pinzeta f
• Slovene: pinceta (sl) f
• Spanish: pinzas (es) f pl, tenacillas f pl, tenazuelas f pl, pinza [depilatoria] f, pincita [de depilar] f
• Swedish: pincett (sv) c
• Tagalog: tiyani
• Tajik: мӯйчинак (müyčinak), пинтсет (pintset)
• Tamil: இடுக்கி (ta) (iṭukki)
• Thai: แหนบ (th) (nɛ̀ɛp)
• Turkish: cımbız (tr)
• Ukrainian: пінце́т m (pincét), щи́пці m pl (ščýpci)
• Urdu: چِمْٹی f (cimṭī)
• Uyghur: قىسقۇچ (qisquch)
• Uzbek: pinset (uz), qisqich (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhíp (vi)
• Welsh: pliciwr m, plyciwr m, gefel f (for stamps, etc.)

See also

• en prison estuier
• estuier