wrest

Meaning

Verb

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently.
2. (transitive) To obtain by pulling or violent force.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To seize.
4. (figuratively, transitive) To distort, to pervert, to twist.
5. (transitive) 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. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, obsolete, rare) Ellipsis of 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

Translations

afpersen

afdwingen

arrebatar

knevelen

verdraaien

tordre

αποσπώ

verwringen

twijnen

drehen

verbuigen

strappare

entreißen

arraffare

erzwingen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɹɛst/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: wresten

Inherited from Old English: wrǣstan

Cognate with Old Norse: reista

In summary

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.