Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Criminal Sentence 462: Painful Sentence

From a book I'm reading (describing childbirth):

"It felt like a vice gripping my stomach."

When I see the word "vice," I think smoking or some other evil thing, not a metal pinching device!

I did look it up, and "vice" is listed as an alternate to "vise," but why use "vice" when a perfectly good "vise" is waiting?
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 20, 2010 at 9:20 AM

    I have no context for the sentence; however, a vice (smoking, etc.) can certainly have a grip on someone. If the author intended figurative language, I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. WestleyOctober 20, 2010 at 1:14 PM

    Wow, Anonymous. Good catch. It may have been deliberate. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 20, 2010 at 6:30 PM

    Shouldn't this be Criminal Sentence 462?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Sentence SleuthOctober 20, 2010 at 6:53 PM

    Thanks! Corrected!
    As for the context, it was clearly a paragraph about the difficulties of giving birth and the pain she was in. I myself have been in that vise!

    ReplyDelete

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