| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| vise |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  v s |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also vice |
| NOUN: | A clamping device, usually consisting of two jaws closed or opened by a screw or lever, used in carpentry or metalworking to hold a piece in position. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: vised also viced, vis·ing, vic·ing, vis·es, vic·es
To hold or compress in or as if in a vise. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English vis, screwlike device, from Old French, screw, from Latin vtis, vine (from its spiral wrappings). See wei- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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