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Webster 1913 Edition


Wrest

Wrest

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Wrested
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Wresting
.]
[OE.
wresten
, AS.
wr[GREEK]stan
; akin to
wr[GREEK][GREEK]
a twisted band, and
wrī[GREEK]n
to twist. See
Writhe
.]
1.
To turn; to twist; esp., to twist or extort by violence; to pull of force away by, or as if by, violent wringing or twisting.
“The secret wrested from me.”
Milton.
Our country’s cause,
That drew our swords, now secret
wrests
them from our hand.
Addison.
They instantly
wrested
the government out of the hands of Hastings.
Macaulay.
2.
To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort.
Wrest
once the law to your authority.
Shakespeare
Thou shalt not
wrest
the judgment of thy poor.
Ex. xxiii. 6.
Their arts of
wresting
, corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text.
South.
3.
To tune with a wrest, or key.
[Obs.]

Wrest

,
Noun.
1.
The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion.
Hooker.
2.
Active or moving power.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
3.
A key to tune a stringed instrument of music.
The minstrel . . . wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the
wrest
, or key, with which he tuned his harp.
Sir W. Scott.
4.
A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the buckets is determined.
Wrest pin
(Piano Manuf.)
,
one of the pins around which the ends of the wires are wound in a piano.
Knight.
Wrest plank
(Piano Manuf.)
,
the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.

Webster 1828 Edition


Wrest

WREST

,
Verb.
T.
[G., to wrest, to snatch or pull, to burst, to tear.]
1.
To twist or extort by violence; to pull or force from by violent wringing or twisting; as, to wrest an instrument from anothers hands.
2.
To take or force from by violence. The enemy made a great effort, and wrested the victory from our hands.
But fate has wrested the confession from me.
3.
To distort; to turn from truth or twist from its natural meaning by violence; to pervert.
Wrest once the law to your authority.
Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor. Exodus 23.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3.

WREST

,
Noun.
1.
Distortion; violent pulling and twisting; perversion.
2.
Active or moving power. [Not used.]
3.
An instrument to tune.

Definition 2024


wrest

wrest

English

Verb

wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)

  1. To pull or twist violently.
  2. To obtain by pulling or violent force.
    He wrested the remote control from my grasp and changed the channel.
    • Milton
      Did not she / Of Timna first betray me, and reveal / The secret wrested from me []
  3. (figuratively) To seize.
    • Macaulay
      They instantly wrested the government out of the hands of Hastings.
    • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 12
      There was one of the tribe of Tarzan who questioned his authority, and that was Terkoz, the son of Tublat, but he so feared the keen knife and the deadly arrows of his new lord that he confined the manifestation of his objections to petty disobediences and irritating mannerisms; Tarzan knew, however, that he but waited his opportunity to wrest the kingship from him by some sudden stroke of treachery, and so he was ever on his guard against surprise.
  4. (figuratively) To twist, pervert, distort.
    • Bible, Exodus xxiii. 6
      Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor.
    • South
      their arts of wresting, corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text
    • 1597, Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
      And, I beseech you,
      Wrest once the law to your authority;
      To do a great right do a little wrong,
      And curb this cruel devil of his will.
  5. To tune with a wrest, or key.

Translations

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

  1. The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)
  2. (obsolete) Active or motive power.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
  3. (music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      The minstrel [] wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the wrest, or key, with which he tuned his harp.
  4. A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.

Derived terms

  • wrest pin
  • wrest plank

Anagrams