pincer » pincher

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Chela The large claw or pincher of a crayfish. (Key to the Crayfishes of Pennsyvania)
  • Surrounding the fourth magnitude star Nu Scorpii in the northern pincher of Scorpius, IC4592 is a very faint reflection nebula that is best-photographed under extremely dark skies. (link)
  • According to Schmidt, the key to successful claw cracking involves positioning the claw on the table with the fixed side (the pincher of the claw that doesn’t move) facing up. (Baltimore Sun, April 26, 2001)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Linda Seebach (editorial writer, Rocky Mountain News, via e-mail)

Linda Seebach found the following passage in a letter to the editor (it was changed before publication):

> The pulse of social change is with the News on this one, but you’re too busy fending off the political/economic pinchers of the conservative bug to realize it.

A pincher is someone who pinches. For some people, it’s also, quite reasonably, something that pinches.

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/10/07 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Francis Harrington , 2006/01/30 at 4:16 am

    Regarding “pincher”: You forgot about that nice pincher of lemonade.

  2. 2

    Commentary by Karen , 2006/05/16 at 2:03 pm

    Also there is that rare but not-unheard-of breed of dog, the Doberman pincer.

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