Meaning

An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips..

Definitions by Sense

1. An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips.
2. (by extension) A large scissors-like two-piece center-hinged forged-iron implement with oval-loop handles and with pointed tips turned inward (in the same plane as and perpendicular to the handles) to facilitate lifting and carrying a block of ice. Often called ice tongs.
3. plural of tong (“instrument”)
4. third-person singular simple present indicative of tong
5. plural of tong (“Chinese secret society”)

Example Sentences

There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs;[…].

Synonyms for tongs

Related Words

When Should You Use Tongs?

Use tongs when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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