Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WRENCH, v.t. [G. verrenken; D. verwringen. See Wring. Qu. Ir. freanc.]

1. To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist or force by violence; as, to wrench a sword from another's hand.
2. To strain; to sprain; to distort. You wrenched your foot against a stone. – Swift.

WRENCH'ED, pp.

Pulled with a twist; sprained.

WRENCH'ING, ppr.

Pulling with a twist; wresting violently; spraining.

WREST, n.

1. Distortion; violent pulling and twisting; perversion. – Hooker.
2. Active or moving power. [Not used.] – Spenser.
3. An instrument to tune.

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.

WREST'ED, pp.

Pulled with twisting; distorted; perverted.

WREST'ER, n.

One who wrests or perverts.

WREST'ING, ppr.

Pulling with a twist; distorting; perverting.

WRES'TLE, v.i. [res'l; Sax. wræstlian or wraxlian; D. worstelen. If wraxlian is the true orthography, this word belongs to Class Rg; otherwise it is from wrest.]

1. To strive with arms extended, as two men, who seize each other by the collar and arms, each endeavoring to throw the other by tripping up his heels and twitching him off his center. Another, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum. – Wiseman.
2. To struggle; to strive; to contend. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. – Eph. vi.

WRES'TLER, n.

One who wrestles; or one who is skillful in wrestling.

WRES'TLING, n.

Strife; struggle; contention.

WRES'TLING, ppr.

Striving to throw; contending.

WRETCH, n. [Sax. wræcca, one who is driven, an exile. See Wreck, and ערק, Class Rg, No. 48.]

1. A miserable person; one sunk in the deepest distress as, a forlorn wretch.
2. A worthless mortal; as, a contemptible wretch.
3. A person sunk in vice; as, a profligate wretch.
4. It is sometimes used by way of slight or ironical pity ot contempt. Poor wretch was never frighted so. – Drayton.
5. It is sometimes used to express tenderness; as we say poor thing.

WRETCH'ED, a.

1. Very miserable; sunk into deep affliction or distress, either from want, anxiety or grief. The wretched find no friends. – Dryden.
2. Calamitous; very afflicting; as, the wretched condition of slaves in Algiers.
3. Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; as, a wretched poem; a wretched cabin.
4. Despicable; hatefully vile and contemptible. He was guilty of wretched ingratitude.

WRETCH'ED-LY, adv.

1. Most miserably; very poorly. The prisoners were wretchedly lodged.
2. Unhappily; as, two wars wretchedly entered upon. – Clarendon.
3. Meanly; despicably; as, a discourse wretchedly delivered.

WRETCH'ED-NESS, n.

1. Extreme misery or unhappiness either from want or sorrow; as, the wretchedness of poor mendicants. We have, with the feeling, lost the very memory of such wretchedness as our forefathers endured. – Ralegh. The prodigal brought nothing to his father but his rags and wretchedness. – Dwight.
2. Meanness; despicableness; as, the wretchedness of a performance.

WRETCH'LESS, a. [for Reckless.]

WRETCH'LESS-NESS, n. [for Recklessness, are improper.]

WRIG, v. [for Wriggle. Not in use.]

WRIG'GLE, v.i. [W. rhuglaw, to move briskly; D. wriggelen or wrikken.]

To move the body to and fro with short motions. Both he and his successors would often wriggle in their seats, as long as the cushion lasted. – Swift.

WRIG'GLE, v.t.

To put into a quick reciprocating motion; to introduce by a shifting motion. Wriggling his body to recover His seat, and cast his right leg over. – Hudibras.

WRIG'GLER, n.

One who wriggles.

WRIG'GLING, ppr.

Moving the body one way and the other with quick turns.

WRIGHT, n. [Sax. wryhta; from the root of work.]

An artificer; one whose occupation is some kind of mechanical business; a workman; a manufacturer. This word is now chiefly used in compounds, as in shipwright, wheelwright.

WRING, n.

Action of anguish. – Hall.