vise

plural vises · alternative Commonwealth vice

1. USAn instrument consisting of two jaws, closing by a screw, lever, cam, or the like, for holding work, as in filing.

   Clamp this loop in a strong vise and twist the two ends evenly into one piece. As the twisting progresses, move the wire along so as to keep the grip of the vise close to the hands.

   1937 October, R. H. Jenkins, “Five attractive new designs you can work out from inexpensive materials”, in Popular Science, volume 131, number 4, Bonnier Corporation, page 96

2. figurativelyA situation in which one's freedom of choice is constrained.

   I'd like to know what would become of us in the next ten minutes. They've got us in a vise. We're done for, Gall.

   c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 3

   1 more example

   The Trump administration has imposed an economic vise on Cuba and its ruling communist party to try to force political and economic change.

   2026 September 17, Ed Augustin, Frances Robles, “Trump’s Economic Vise Leaves Cubans Desperate for Food and Medicine”, in The New York Times, retrieved 19 Sep 2026

3. obsoleteA screw.
4. obsoleteA spiral staircase.

present singular third person vises · participle present vising · participle past vised · past vised · alternative Commonwealth vice

1. To clamp with or as with a vise.

   He looked to see the secretary, vised and crackled in those arms, drop limp and senseless.

   1904, The Cambrian - Volume 24, page 166

   3 more examples

   Repeat this step to make the bend at the other 39-inch mark being careful that it is also at a 90° angle to the vised pipe, and also parallel to the first bend.

   1981, Petersen's Photographic Magazine - Volume 10, Issues 7-12, page 51

   “There's my girl,” he whispered. He reached back to lift each of her legs to vise her knees under his arms.

   2007, Catherine Anderson, Phantom Waltz, →ISBN, page 302

   I do clearly remember the last part of that conversation, because it involved Athena promising that the next time she saw me, she was going to vise my jaws open and shit down my throat.

   2013, Geoff Berner, Festival Man: A Novel, →ISBN

present singular third person vises · participle present viseing · participle past vised · past vised · alternative Commonwealth vice

1. alternativeAlternative form of visé.

   It was the hour in which all who had affairs to arrange with the Austrian ambassador, passports to vise, contracts to sign,were allowed entrance, and it was the baron's duty to receive them.

   1867, Luise Mühlbach, Frederick the Great and His Family, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   Although the Department has no wish to remonstrate further than it has already done against the refusal of the Russian authorities to vise passports issued to naturalized citizens of Russian origin, its position is consistent and tenable that a passport issued by the Government of the United States to one of its citizens and intended for his protection in any and all foreign countries which he may choose to visit is not to be in effect destroyed or impaired in value by a Russian consular officer.

   1897, United States. Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, page 518

   The latest published correspondence on the subject is in the case of Waix, an American citizen of the Jewish race, who applied to the Russian consul general in New York to vise his passport, in order that he might visit Russia.

   1904, Frank Charles Smith, Lucien Brock Proctor, Heman Gerald Chapin, The American Lawyer - Volume 12, page 33

   At Manchouli, it was said, ViceConsul Ishida and Chancellor Teng requested the local Soviet Consulate to vise their passports, but the Soviet consulate authorities unreasonably declined to comply with the request.

   1938, Manchuria: Semi-monthly Publication of the Manchuria Daily News

plural Vises

1. A surname.