Also 8 tweeser. [f. TWEEZE, or twees, tweeze pl. of TWEE1. Also, in mod. use, a back-formation from TWEEZERS.)
† 1. A case of small instruments; an etui, a tweezer-case. Obs.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. vii. 111. His signe … is as attractive as … his Plaister-box (if he be a Chyron too) or if not, as his Tweezer.
1745. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 34/2. They admired my tweeser, and the trinkets in it.
1746. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 22. (1748), IV. 187. Her maid … went privately away in the night, taking with her … her watch, tweezer, a diamond solitaire, and several other trinkets.
2. = TWEEZERS 2; also attrib. formed like tweezers.
1904. H. G. Wells, Food of Gods, I. iv. 105. His hand upon the tweezer of his balance weights.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 18 Nov., 4/2. Vertical springs in front and half-‘tweezer’ cross-springs in the rear.
