3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Wrest \Wrest\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wrested}; p. pr & vb n.
{Wresting}.] [OE. wresten, AS wr?stan; akin to wr?? a
twisted band, and wr[=i]?n 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.]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Wrest \Wrest\, n.
1. The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence
distortion; perversion. --Hooker.
2. Active or moving power. [Obs.] --Spenser.
3. A key to tune a stringed instrument of music.
The minstrel . . . wore round his neck a silver
chain, by which hung the wrest, or key, with which
he tuned his harp. --Sir W.
Scott.
4. A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the
buckets is determined.
{Wrest pin} (Piano Manuf.), one of the pins around which the
ends of the wires are wound in a piano. --Knight.
{Wrest plank} (Piano Manuf.), the part in which the wrest
pins are inserted.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
wrest
v 1: take away with force; "She wrested the will from her
brother's hands" [syn: {pull away}, {force away}]
2: seize forcibly or violently; "wrest the knife from his
hands"
more about wrest
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