WRENCHING

racking, wrenching

(adjective) causing great physical or mental suffering; “a wrenching pain”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Verb

wrenching

present participle of wrench

Noun

wrenching (plural wrenchings)

The act by which something is wrenched.

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



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Word of the Day

19 May 2025

CHEMICAL

(adjective) of or made from or using substances produced by or used in reactions involving atomic or molecular changes; “chemical fertilizer”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest coffee shop is the Al Masaa Café, which has 1,050 seats. The coffee shop was inaugurated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 13 August 2014.

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