wrest
(verb) obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically; “wrest the knife from his hands”; “wrest a meaning from the old text”; “wrest power from the old government”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)
(transitive) To pull or twist violently.
(transitive) To obtain by pulling or violent force.
(transitive, figuratively) To seize.
(transitive, figuratively) To distort, to pervert, to twist.
(transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.
wrest (plural wrests)
The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
(music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.
(obsolete) Active or motive power.
(obsolete, rare) Short for saw wrest; a saw set.
wrest (plural wrests)
A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.
wrest (plural wrests)
(agriculture, dated, dialectal) A metal (formerly wooden) piece of some ploughs attached under the mouldboard (the curved blade that turns over the furrow) for clearing out the furrow; the mouldboard itself.
• Trews, strew, trews, werst
Source: Wiktionary
Wrest, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrested; p. pr. & vb. n. Wresting.] Etym: [OE. wresten, AS. wr; akin to wr a twisted band, and wri 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. Shak. 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, n.
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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
24 December 2024
(adverb) in an intuitive manner; “inventors seem to have chosen intuitively a combination of explosive and aggressive sounds as warning signals to be used on automobiles”
The first coffee-house in Mecca dates back to the 1510s. The beverage was in Turkey by the 1530s. It appeared in Europe circa 1515-1519 and was introduced to England by 1650. By 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee houses, and coffee had replaced beer as a breakfast drink.
