pliers
PLY-urz/ˈplaɪɚz/UKPLY-uhz/ˈplaɪ.ə(ɹ)z/
- 1A pincer-like hand tool that boosts the strength of your grip, used to hold or bend small objects.
Like a lever for your grip: a small squeeze at the handles becomes a powerful pinch at the tip.
She tightened the loose clamp with a pair of pliers from the toolbox.
The electrician reached for pliers to bend the copper wire into shape.
Note
Grammar treats this single tool as a plural. It takes a plural verb (the pliers are in the drawer), and one tool is counted as a pair of pliers. The name says what the tool is for: ply, "to bend," plus -er, so a plier is a bender. That suits a tool so often used to bend wire. The same spelling also serves as the plain plural of plier.
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Origin
Formed from the verb "ply" ("to bend") with the endings "-er" and "-s."