sing. and pl. Also 8 sing. forcep, pl. 7–8 forcipes, 9 forcepses. [a. L. forceps, pl. forcipes in same sense.]
1. An instrument of the pincers kind, used for seizing and holding objects, esp. in surgical and obstetric operations.
sing.
1670. Boyle, Wks. (1772), III. 369. So she continued gaping until near the end of the sixth minute, at which time all her motions, some of which were judged convulsive, and others, that had been excited by our rouzing her with a forceps, appeared to cease, and her head to hang carelessly down as if she was quite dead.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xi. 70. Thou hast come forth unarm’d;—thou hast left thy tire tête,—thy new-invented forceps,—thy crotchet,—thy squirt, and all thy instruments of salvation and deliverance behind thee.
1822. Imison, Elements of Science and Art, I. 279. A forceps, or pair of pliers, for taking up insects, or other objects, and adjusting them to the glasses.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xix. (ed. 3), 187. The forceps draws the wire on to a distance equal in length to one pin.
1855. F. H. Ramsbotham, Obstet. Med., 292. One of the most valuable instruments employed in Obstetric Surgery, under careful management, is the Long Forceps.
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1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Chirurg., XVII. xiii. (1678), 389. Then must the tooth bee taken hold of with some of these toothed forcipes.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2054/4. A pair of Steel Forceps.
1823. H. H. Wilson, in Oriental Mag., I. March, 352. The Swastikas are twenty four in number—they are metallic, usually eighteen inches long, having heads or points fancifully shaped like the heads of animals, the beaks of birds, &c. They are secured with small pins, and are curved or hooked at the points, and are used to extract splinters of bone or foreign bodies lodged in the bones—they were, therefore, pincers, nippers, or forcipes.
1875. F. T. Buckland, Log-bk., 140. I had great trouble to separate them [scorpions], and get one of them out of the globe. At last I succeeded, by using two paper knives and a long pair of forceps. I wonder they did not poison each other or myself.
2. Anat., Ent., and Zoöl. Some organ or part of the body that has the shape of, or may be used as, a forceps. † Also, one of the two branches of this.
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1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. The Squillæ have a taile, but no forceps.
1759. Goldsm., Bee, No. 4 (Globe), 378/2. It [the spider] is furnished with a forceps above the mouth, which serves to kill or secure the prey already caught in its claws or its net.
1765. Univ. Mag., XXXVII. July, 9/1. The eggs at the origin of each forceps, for example, would contain but one forcep; near the extremity of the forceps others should be placed, containing only the extremities of the forceps.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 153. P. corrugatus, Bosc…. forceps serrated.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. ix. 329. It serves, as I hear from Sir J. Lubbock, to hold the female, and for this same purpose one of the two posterior legs on the same side of the body is converted into a forceps.
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1667. E. King, in Phil. Trans., II. 425. What violence the Black ones [Ants] will seize on the Red, never leaving to pinch them on the head with their Forceps or Claws, till they have kill’d them upon the place.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., IV. xi. 190, note. I have admired at their peculiar way of taking in their Food; which is done by piercing their Prey with their Forcipes (which are hollow) and sucking the Juice thereof through them.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (1873), 191. These forceps can seize firmly hold of any object; and Alexander Agassiz has seen an Echinus or sea-urchin rapidly passing particles of excrement from forceps to forceps down certain lines of its body, in order that its shell should not be fouled. Ibid., Tridactyle forcepses, immovably fixed at the base, but capable of a snapping action, certainly exist on some star-fishes; and this is intelligible if they serve, at least in part, as a means of defence.
3. attrib. and Comb. (with reference to obstetric practice), as forceps-case, -delivery, -practice.
1879. J. M. Duncan, Lect. Dis. Women, ii. (1889), 6. They may present painful aching parts, the result of injury, as by forceps-delivery or by ordinary accidents. Ibid., vi. 26. Simply spoken of as ‘forceps cases.’ Ibid., 27. I shall here make one remark in judging of the forceps-practice referred to.
