scissors vs tongs

scissors

noun
  • A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when the handles are closed. 

  • A method of skating with one foot significantly in front of the other. 

  • A scissors hold. 

  • An instance of the above dogfighting maneuver. 

  • An attacking move conducted by two players; the player without the ball runs from one side of the ball carrier, behind the ball carrier, and receives a pass from the ball carrier on the other side. 

  • A hand with the index and middle fingers open (a handshape resembling scissors), that beats paper and loses to rock. It beats lizard and loses to Spock in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock. 

  • An exercise in which the legs are switched back and forth, suggesting the motion of scissors. 

  • A type of defensive maneuver in dogfighting, involving repeatedly turning one's aircraft towards that of the attacker in order to force them to overshoot. 

tongs

noun
  • A large scissors-like two-piece center-hinged forged-iron implement with oval-loop handles and with pointed tips turned inward (in the same plane as and perpendicular to the handles) to facilitate lifting and carrying a block of ice. Often called ice tongs. 

  • An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips. 

How often have the words scissors and tongs occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )