Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WRING, v.t. [pret. and pp. wringed and wrung. The latter is chiefly used. Sax. wringan; G. ringen; D. wringen; Dan. vrænger; Sw. vränga; Dan. ringer. The sense is to strain.]

1. To twist; to turn and strain with violence; as, to wring clothes in washing.
2. To squeeze; to press; to force by twisting; as, to wring water out of a wet garment.
3. To writhe; as, to wring the body in pain.
4. To pinch. The king began to find where his shoe did wring him. [Obs.] – Bacon. If he had not been too much grieved and wrung by an uneasy and strait fortune. [Obs.] – Clarendon.
5. To distress; to press with pain. Didst thou taste but half the griefs / That wring my soul, thou couldst not talk thus coldly. – Addison.
6. To distort; to pervert. How dare these men thus wring the Scriptures? – Whitgifte.
7. To persecute with extortion. These merchant adventurers have been often wronged and wringed to the quick. – Hayward.
8. To bend or strain out of its position; as, to wring a mast. – Mar. Dict. To wring off, to force off or separate by wringing; as, to wring of the head of a fowl. To wring out, to force out; to squeeze out by twisting; as, to wring out dew or water. – Judges vi. #2. To free from a liquor by wringing; as, to wring out clothes. To wring from, to force from by violence; to extort; as revenues wrung from the poor; to wring from one his rights; to wring a secret from one.