tweezers, n. pl.
(ˈtwiːzəz)
Also 7 twizers, twezers, tweesers.
[An extended form of tweezes, pl. of tweeze n. (cf. trouse n.2 and trousers). See also tweezer n.]
† 1. A set or case of small instruments. Also a pair (= set) of tweezers. Obs. rare.
| 1654 D. Osborne Lett. to Sir W. Temple (1888) 223 Did not you say once you knew where good French tweezers were to be had? Pray send me a pair; they shall cut no love. 1662 Pepys Diary 20 June, Bought me a pair of tweezers, cost me 14/-. 1686 tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 122 Ribbands, Paper, Needles, Twizers, Knives and Scissars. 1688 R. L'Estrange Brief Hist. Times iii. 121 A Present of Twezers, and a Case of Knives to Father Sweetman at Madrid. 1742 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) II. 173 They much admired my tweezers and the trinkets that were in them. |
2. Small pincers or nippers (orig. as included in the contents of an etui) used for plucking out hairs from the face or for grasping minute objects. Also a pair of tweezers.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. vii. 110 If he had but spirit enough to have drawne, the very sight of his Tweezers would have put the Don to the Roares. Ibid. iii. xii. 156 M{supr}. Barber with his Razor or his Tweezers, could not be so expeditious. a 1704 T. Brown Lett. to Gent. & Ladies Wks. 1709 III. ii. 122 His Eye-brows are fair, but over large,..I mean, when the Tweezers have not play'd their Part. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 489 They pluck up the hairs..by the roots with tweezers. 1821 Byron Juan v. lxxx, With some small aid from scissars, paint, and tweezers, He look'd in almost all respects a maid. 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man ii. 28 In it were found..a pair of tweezers in bronze. 1904 Mission Field June 71 Tweezers were used by the Indian men to pull out every hair that grew on their faces. |
b. transf. in various senses.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes ii. ii. 40 Until these unpar'd nailes, these sharp and tearing tweesers I fasten on his face. 1889 Science-Gossip XXV. 118 That the use of the ‘tweezers’, borne by the ear-wig at the end of the abdomen, was considered somewhat obscure. |