Wrest

Definition of Wrest

v. t.1.
[imp. & p. p. Wrested; p. pr. & vb. n. Wresting.]
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.
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.
n.1.The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion.
2.Active or moving power.
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.
Wrest plank
(Piano Manuf.) the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.
- Knight.

Related Words

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