WRENCHES
Noun
wrenches
plural of wrench
Verb
wrenches
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wrench
Anagrams
• wenchers
Source: Wiktionary
WRENCH
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