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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?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

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.

Westley said...

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

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't this be Criminal Sentence 462?

The Sentence Sleuth said...

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!