wrest

Meaning

Verb

1. To pull or twist violently.
2. To obtain by pulling or violent force.
3. To seize.
4. To distort, to pervert, to twist.
5. To tune with a wrest, or key.

Noun

1. The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
2. A key to tune a stringed instrument.
3. (obsolete) Active or motive power.
4. (obsolete) Short for saw wrest (“a hand tool for setting the teeth of a saw, determining the width of the kerf”); a saw set.

Noun

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

Noun

A metal (formerly wooden) piece of some ploughs attached under the mouldboard (the curved blade that turns over the furrow) for clearing out the furrow; the mouldboard itself.

Synonyms

seize

snatch

wrench

🔧

grab

wring

take

twist

catch

extort

distort

warp

wrick

yank

extract

pluck

contort

pull

grasp

compete

pull out

mangle

rip out

draw

bend

vie

sprain

scramble for

squeeze

misshape

misunderstand

overjoy

pervert

pilfer

pinch

plunk

pry

ravish

restrain

rob

screw

snap

stanza

stave

strip

swoop

take away

torture

tug

turn

turning

turnover

twiddle

unfix

usurp

verticil

wind

winding

jerk away

prey upon

draw forth

abduct

remove forcibly

abstract

alienate

arrogate

break

capture

curve

deform

deprive

detach

dispossess

distord

distract

divest

elicit

enrapture

enthral

exact

expropriate

fascinate

force

grip

haul

heave

hijack

hold back

jerk

mesmerize

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɹɛst/

Etymology

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wrǣstan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną, (compare Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wrīþaną (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry.
The noun is derived from the verb.