How to Use pincer movement in a Sentence

pincer movement

noun
  • Persians closed in from both ends of the pass in a classic pincer movement.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2020
  • The teams then brief each other in their own temporal pincer movement.
    — Nate Jones, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Moscow tried to seize the area in a pincer movement in the early days of the war and into the summer.
    — Thomas Grove, WSJ, 8 Dec. 2022
  • The initial battle plan appeared to involve a pincer movement.
    — Washington Post, 14 June 2018
  • Such pincer movement might provide Pelosi with leverage to extract greater concessions.
    — Jeet Heer, New Republic, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Cue the potential for a pincer movement swelling Meta’s messaging at Apple’s expense.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
  • Making a pincer movement with his hands, Tymchuk demonstrated how Allied forces closed in on all sides on the Germans.
    — Washington Post, 5 June 2019
  • The main effort of Russia’s ground campaign would be to create a pincer movement from the north that encircled Kyiv and enveloped the bulk of Ukraine’s ground forces in the eastern part of the country.
    — Michael Kofman, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022
  • Alibaba’s problems are a combination of the effects of China’s slowing growth and a political pincer movement that has crushed the country’s tech sector for nearly two years.
    — Patrick Frater, Variety, 4 Aug. 2022
  • In the early stages of the war, Russia had converted Izyum into a military stronghold, eyeing the city as the base for a pincer movement that would surround Ukrainian forces in the east.
    — Kamila Hrabchuk, Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2022
  • The Ukrainians are located in a north-south crescent between deep Russian lines in the southeastern Donbas region, and a potential pincer movement to their west.
    — Karen Deyoung, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Apr. 2022
  • The immediate purpose of this giant pincer movement was the liberation of Europe from Nazi domination.
    — Alan Cowell, New York Times, 6 June 2019
  • Neoliberalism could be analogized to a large pincer movement, of which one prong is globalization and the other financialization, with neither able to function successfully without the other.
    — Win McCormack, The New Republic, 23 Nov. 2022
  • The two most extensive invasion scenarios would involve a simultaneous attack from multiple sides — a maneuver known as a pincer movement or double envelopment.
    — Courtney Kube, NBC News, 10 Feb. 2022
  • As his platoon approached a Russian position near the town of Zolota Balka along the river, the Ukrainians simultaneously attacked each flank in a pincer movement.
    — Kamila Hrabchuk, Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Meanwhile, Licence argued, Harold also sent ships to Hastings to attempt a pincer movement to trap William from the south, but the fleet arrived too late to change the course of the devastating battle that took place on October 14.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 23 Mar. 2026
  • The Houthis could also fire long-range missiles at Israel, and target Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations—including their oil, energy, and economic infrastructure—from the south, as Iran strikes these countries from the north, in a joint pincer movement.
    — Sudarsan Raghavan, New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pincer movement.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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