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(British) small pruning shears with a spring that holds the handles open and a single blade that closes against a flat surface
Answer for the clue "(British) small pruning shears with a spring that holds the handles open and a single blade that closes against a flat surface ", 9 letters:
secateurs
Word definitions for secateurs in dictionaries
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. (context chiefly British English) small, handheld pruning shears
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. small pruning shears with a spring that holds the handles open and a single blade that closes against a flat surface
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pruning shears, 1881, from French sécateur , ultimately from Latin secare "to cut" (see section (n.)).
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ A pair of secateurs might also be useful. ▪ And M was stabbing at the table top with her secateurs and I could see she was white with rage. ▪ For a long time the professionals had a preference for a pruning knife over secateurs ...
Usage examples of secateurs.
She just had time to snatch a quick salad lunch before going outside into the field with her secateurs and her trug, ready to start harvesting those flowers that were at their peak.
He was wearing an old pair of herringbone tweeds and brandished a pair of secateurs like a cavalry sabre.
Miss Marple sighed, looked again with annoyance at the antirrhinums, saw several weeds which she yearned to root up, one or two exuberant suckers she would like to attack with her secateurs, and finally, sighing, and manfully resisting temptation, she made a detour round by the lane and returned to her house.
The borders were overgrown and neglected but a couple of hours with the hoe and secateurs made them respectable again.
Yes, she was plainly old, yet the way she moved as she beckoned us in across the huge and empty hall, still snipping those secateurs, you half-expected her to fly.
Standard English, folding her secateurs and slipping them into the pocket of her back salopette.
Miss Somerville took her secateurs and her trug and went through to the West Terrace, to the sheltered side of the house away from the sea.