pincers

Troops advanced in a pincers movement, attacking from the southwest and northeast, reaching at times the two roads.

As Russian pincers were closing on the city, a presidential aide warned last week that the military could “strategically pull back” if needed.

They return with pincers gripping dead young ants to feed the settlement.

I pressed my sleeve against my cut cheek until the throbbing pain spread like red-hot pincers, twisting into the flesh and burrowing deeper.

Mr. Gorbachev soon found himself caught between the pincers of established glasnost and delayed perestroika.