Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WRING, v.i.

To writhe; to twist; as with anguish. – Shak.

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.

WRING'-BOLT, n. [wring and bolt.]

A bolt used by shipwrights, to bend and secure the planks against the timbers till they are fastened by bolts, spikes and tree-nails. – Mar. Dict.

WRING'ED, pp.

Twisted; pressed; distressed; extorted.

WRING'ER, n.

One who wrings; one that forces water out of any thing by wringing.

WRING'ING, ppr.

Twisting; writhing; extorting.

WRING'ING-WET, a.

So wet as to require wringing, or that water may be wrung out.

WRING-STAVES, n.

Strong bars of wood used in applying wring bolts. – Mar. Dict.

WRINK'LE, n. [Sax. wrincle; Sw. rynka; Dan. rynke. This coincides with ring, a circle. The Dutch write this word krinkle, and kring is ring. The G. runzel is probably of the same family, formed on Rg; Ir. rang. If n is casual, the root coincides with L. ruga, a wrinkle, and W. rhyç, a furrow.]

1. A small ridge or prominence, or a furrow, formed by the shrinking or contraction of any smooth substance; corrugation; a crease; as, wrinkles in the face or skin.
2. A fold or rumple in cloth.
3. Roughness; unevenness. Not the least wrinkle to deform the sky. – Dryden.

WRINK'LE, v.i.

To shrink into furrows and ridges.

WRINK'LE, v.t. [Sax. wrinclian; Sw. rynka; Dan. rynker.]

1. To contract into furrows and prominences; to corrugate; as, to wrinkle the skin; to wrinkle the brow. Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd. – Pope.
2. To make rough or uneven. A keen north wind, blowing dry, / Wrinkled the face of deluge, as decay'd. – Milton.

WRINK'LED, pp.

Contracted into ridges and furrows.

WRINK'LING, ppr.

Shrinking; contracting into furrows and ridges.

WRIST, n. [Sax. wrist; allied probably to wrest and wrestle; that is, a twist or junction.]

1. The joint by which the hand is united to the arm.
2. In the manege, the bridle wrist is that of the cavalier's left hand. – Cyc.

WRIST'BAND, n. [wrist and band.]

That band or part of a shirt sleeve which covers the wrist.

WRIT, n. [from write.]

1. That which is written. In this sense, writ is particularly applied to the Scriptures, or books of the Old and New Testament; as, holy writ; sacred writ.
2. In law, a precept issued from the proper authority to the sherif, his deputy or other subordinate officer, commanding him to perform some act, as to summon a defendant into court to answer, and the like. In England, writs are issued from some event under seal. In some of the United States, writs are issued by any single judge or justice of the peace, in the name and by the authority of the state. In some of the United States, the writ in a civil suit, contains both the summons and the plaintif's declaration or cause of action set forth at large, and a writ is either a summons or an attachment. Writs are original or judicial. An original writ, in England, is issued from the high court of chancery. A judicial writ is issued by order of a court upon a special occasion, during the pendency of the suit. Writs are of various kinds; as, writs of assize, writs of copias, writs of distringas, &c. – Shak.
3. A legal instrument. – Shak.

WRIT, v. [pret. of Write, is not now used. See Write and Wrote.]

WRITE, v.i.

1. To perform the act of forming characters, letters, or figures, as representatives of sounds or ideas. Learn to write when young.
2. To be employed as a clerk or an amanuensis. A writes for B. D writes in one of the public offices.
3. To play the author; as, he thinks, he speaks, he writes, he sings.
4. To recite or relate in books. Josephus wrote of the wars of the Jews.
5. To send letters. He wrote for all the Jews concerning their freedom. – Esdras.
6. To call one's self; by be entitled; to use the style of. Those who began to write themselves men, but thought no shame to learn. – Fell.
7. To compose; to frame or combine ideas and express then in words. They can write up to the dignity and character of their authors. – Felton.

WRITE, v.t. [pret. wrote; pp. writ, written. Sax. writan, awritan, gewritan; Ice. rita; Goth. writs, a letter. The sense is to scrape, to scratch, to rub; probably from the root of grate, and L. rado.]

1. To form by a pen on paper or other material, or by graver on wood or stone; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures. We write characters on paper with pen and ink; we write them on stone with a graving tool.
2. To express by forming letters and words on paper or stone; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement. The ten commandments were written with the finger of God on tables of stone. – Exod. xxxi.
3. To engrave. [See the preceding definition.]
4. To impress durably. Write useful truths on the heart.
5. To compose or produce, as an author.
6. To copy; to transcribe.
7. To communicate by letter. I chose to write the thing I durst not speak / To her I lov'd. – Prior.

WRIT'ER, n.

1. One who writes or has written.
2. An author.
3. A clerk or amanuensis. Writer of the tallies, an officer of the exchequer of England; a clerk to the auditor of the receipt, who writes upon the tallies the whole of the tellers' bills. – Cyc.

WRITHE, v.t. [Sax. writhan; Sw. vrida; Dan. vrider.]

1. To twist; to distort. Her mouth she writh'd. – Dryden.
2. To twist with violence; as, to writhe the body. – Addison.
3. To wrest; to distort; to torture; as, to writhe with agony. – Addison.

WRITH'ING, ppr.

Twisting; distorting.

WRITH'LE, v.t. [from writhe.]

To wrinkle. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

WRIT-ING, n.

1. The act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs. We hardly know which to admire most, the ingenuity or the utility of the art of writing.
2. Any thing written or expressed in letters; hence, any legal instrument, as a deed, a receipt, a bond, an agreement, &c.
3. A book; any written composition; a pamphlet; as, the writings of Addison.
4. An inscription. – John xix.
5. Writings, plur. conveyances of lands; deeds; or any official papers.

WRIT'ING, ppr.

1. Forming, as characters, with a pen, style, or graver.
2. adj. Used or intended for writing; as, writing paper.