Wrest Definition

rĕst
wrested, wresting, wrests
verb
To obtain or remove by pulling with twisting movements.
Wrested the book out of his hands.
American Heritage
To turn or twist; esp., to pull or force away violently with a twisting motion.
Webster's New World
To take or extract by force; usurp; extort; wring.
Webster's New World
To gain or extract with persistent effort; wring.
Wrested concessions from their opponents.
American Heritage
To distort or change the true meaning, purpose, use, etc. of; pervert; twist.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
noun
The act of wresting; a twist; wrench.
Webster's New World
A small tuning key for the wrest pins of a stringed instrument.
American Heritage

A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.

Wiktionary

Origin of Wrest

  • From Old English wræstan (“to twist, wrench"), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijanÄ… (cf. Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist")), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-. See also wry, writhe.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English wresten from Old English wrǣstan to twist wer-2 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Wrest Sentence Examples

  • Happily for the kingdom whose king was a child and a leper, the attention of Saladin was distracted for several years by an attempt to wrest from the sons of Nureddin the inheritance of their father - an attempt partially successful in 1174, but only finally realized in 1183.

  • There he continued to wrest from the Greeks the lands which their feeble arms were no longer able to defend.

  • The momentum had now shifted, and try as she might, Grinham could not wrest it back.

  • Not for 20 years after his death did the Eastern empire make any attempt to gain Cilicia or wrest homage from Antioch.

  • The military skill of Gylippus enabled the Syracusan militia to meet the Athenian troops on equal terms, to wrest from them their fortified position on Plemmyrium, which Nicias had occupied as a naval station shortly after Gylippus's arrival, and thus to drive them to keep their ships on the low beach between their double walls, to take Labdalum, an Athenian fort on the northern edge of Epipolae, and make a third counter-work right along Epipolae in a westerly direction, to the north of the circular fort.

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Words Starting With W and Ending With T

Starts With W & Ends With TStarts With WR & Ends With TStarts With W & Ends With ST

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5 Letter Words5 Letter Words Starting With W5 Letter Words Ending With T