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plural tongs
(mostly plural) An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands. quotations examples
[…] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong?
1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz, editors, Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232
third-person singular simple present tongs, present participle tonging, simple past and past participle tonged
(intransitive) To use tongs. examples
(transitive) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs. examples
a Chinese lineage organization responsible for managing ancestral land quotations examples
An Ordinance to provide for the termination of the Block Crown Lease of Cheung Chau granted to Wong Wai Tsak Tong and for sub-lessees under the Block Crown Lease to hold directly from the Crown.
1995, Legislative Council of Hong Kong, “Block Crown Lease (Cheung Chau) Ordinance”, in Hong Kong Government Gazette, page A2772
a Chinese secret society or gang examples
Obsolete spelling of tongue quotations examples
Or plaine and perfite way of teachyng children, to vnderstand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate brynging vp of youth in Ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by themselues, without a Scholemaster, in short tyme, and with small paines, recouer a sufficient habilitie, to vnderstand, write, and speake Latin.
1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster