tongs

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tool with two joined arms used to grip, lift, or hold objects without touching them directly

   Cecily picked up the sugar tongs and dropped four lumps into Gwendolen's tea.

The conventional plural of tong, from Middle English tonge and Old English tang or tange ("tongs, pincers"), cognate with German Zange. Like scissors, tongs became a plural-form headword because the implement consists of two arms that work together.

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