2. A violent twist, or a pull with twisting.
He wringeth them such a wrench.
Skelton.
The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere.
De Quincey. 3. A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.
4. Means; contrivance. [Obs.] Bacon.
5. An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between
the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches
have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.
6. (Mech.) The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that
force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be
equivalent to a wrench.
Carriage wrench, a wrench adapted for removing or tightening the nuts that confine the wheels on the
axles, or for turning the other nuts or bolts of a carriage or wagon. — Monkey wrench. See under
Monkey. — Wrench hammer, a wrench with the end shaped so as to admit of being used as a hammer.
Wrench
(Wrench), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrenched ; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrenching.] [OE. wrenchen, AS.
wrencan to deceive, properly, to twist, from wrenc guile, deceit, a twisting. . See Wrench, n.]
1. To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence.
Wrench his sword from him.
Shak.
Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched
With a woeful agony.
Coleridge. 2. To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert.
You wrenched your foot against a stone.
Swift. Wrest
(Wrest) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrested; p. pr. & vb. n. Wresting.] [OE. wresten, AS. wrstan; akin
to wr a twisted band, and wrin 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
(Wrest), n.
