WRENCH

wrench, spanner

(noun) a hand tool that is used to hold or twist a nut or bolt

twist, wrench

(noun) a jerky pulling movement

wrench, twist, pull

(noun) a sharp strain on muscles or ligaments; “the wrench to his knee occurred as he fell”; “he was sidelined with a hamstring pull”

twist, sprain, wrench, turn, wrick, rick

(verb) twist suddenly so as to sprain; “wrench one’s ankle”; “The wrestler twisted his shoulder”; “the hikers sprained their ankles when they fell”; “I turned my ankle and couldn’t walk for several days”

wring, wrench

(verb) twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish; “Wring one’s hand”

wrench, twist

(verb) twist or pull violently or suddenly, especially so as to remove (something) from that to which it is attached or from where it originates; “wrench a window off its hinges”; “wrench oneself free from somebody’s grip”; “a deep sigh was wrenched from his chest”

wrench

(verb) make a sudden twisting motion

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology 1

Noun

wrench (plural wrenches)

A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug. [from 16th c.]

An injury caused by a violent twisting or pulling of a limb; strain, sprain. [from 16th c.]

(obsolete) A trick or artifice. [from 8th c.]

(obsolete) Deceit; guile; treachery. [from 13th c.]

(obsolete) A turn at an acute angle. [from 16th c.]

(archaic) A winch or windlass. [from 16th c.]

(obsolete) A screw. [from 16th c.]

A distorting change from the original meaning. [from 17th c.]

(US) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes; a spanner. [from 18th c.]

(UK) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.

A violent emotional change caused by separation. [from 19th c.]

(physics) In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body. [from 19th c.]

(obsolete) means; contrivance

In coursing, the act of bringing the hare round at less than a right angle, worth half a point in the recognised code of points for judging.

Synonyms

• (tool): spanner (UK, Australia)

Etymology 2

Verb

wrench (third-person singular simple present wrenches, present participle wrenching, simple past and past participle wrenched)

(intransitive, obsolete) To violently move in a turn or writhe. [from 11th c.]

(transitive) To pull or twist violently. [from 13th c.]

(transitive, obsolete) To turn aside or deflect. [from 13th c.]

(transitive, obsolete) To slander. [from 14th c.]

(transitive, obsolete) To tighten with or as if with a winch. [from 16th c.]

(transitive) To injure (a joint) by pulling or twisting. [from 16th c.]

(transitive) To distort from the original meaning. [from 16th c.]

(transitive, obsolete) To thrust a weapon in a twisting motion. [from 16th c.]

(intransitive, fencing, obsolete) To disarm an opponent by whirling his or her blade away. [from 18th c.]

(transitive) To rack with pain. [from 18th c.]

(transitive) To deprive by means of a violent pull or twist. [from 18th c.]

(transitive) To use the tool known as a wrench. [from 19th c.]

Source: Wiktionary

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Wrench, n. Etym: [OE. wrench deceit, AS. wrenc deceit, a twisting; akin to G. rank intrigue, crookedness, renken to bend, twist, and E. wring. Wring, and cf. Ranch, v. t.]

1. Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem. [Obs.] His wily wrenches thou ne mayst not flee. Chaucer.

2. A violent twist, or a pull with twisting. He wringeth them such a wrench. Skelton. The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere. De Quincey.

3. A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.

4. Means; contrivance. [Obs.] Bacon.

5. An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.

6. (Mech.)

Definition: The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be equivalent to a wrench. Carriage wrench, a wrench adapted for removing or tightening the nuts that confine the wheels on the axles, or for turning the other nuts or bolts of a carriage or wagon.

– Monkey wrench. See under Monkey.

– Wrench hammer, a wrench with the end shaped so as to admit of being used as a hammer.

Wrench, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrenching.] Etym: [OE. wrenchen, AS. wrencan to deceive, properly, to twist, from wrenc guile, deceit, a twisting. Wrench, n.]

1. To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence. Wrench his sword from him. Shak. Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woeful agony. Coleridge.

2. To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert. You wrenched your foot against a stone. Swift.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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