A pincer is a grasping tool that works like a claw, with two parts that move together to grab and hold things. Lobsters and crabs have pincers at the ends of their large front claws, which they use to catch food, defend themselves, and sometimes fight with other creatures. When a crab closes its pincer around your finger, those two curved parts squeeze together, and you definitely feel it.

The word also describes any tool that works this way. Tweezers are tiny pincers for picking up small objects. Your own thumb and forefinger work like pincers when you pinch something.

In military strategy, a pincer movement happens when forces attack from two sides at once, closing in like the two parts of a claw. Imagine two groups of students in a game of capture the flag approaching the opponent's base from opposite directions. They're using pincer tactics to trap defenders in the middle.

The plural is pincers, and people often say “a pair of pincers” the same way they'd say “a pair of scissors,” since both parts work together as one tool.