Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WREST, v.t. [Sax. wræstan; G. reissen, to wrest, to snatch or pull, to burst, to tear; Dan. vrister. Qu. L. restis, a rope.]

1. To twist or extort by violence; to pull or force from by violent wringing or twisting; as, to wrest an instrument from another's hands.
2. To take or force from by violence. The enemy made a great effort, and wrested the victory from our hands. But fate has wrested the confession from me. – Addison.
3. To distort; to turn from truth or twist from its natural meaning by violence; to pervert. Wrest once the law to your authority. – Shak. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor. – Exod. xxiii. Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. – 2 Pet. iii.