In 1511, leaders in Mecca believed coffee stimulated radical thinking and outlawed the drink. In 1524, the leaders overturned that order, and people could drink coffee again.
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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29 December 2024
CHRONIC
(adjective) being long-lasting and recurrent or characterized by long suffering; “chronic indigestion”; “a chronic shortage of funds”; “a chronic invalid”
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