wrest
to twist or turn; pull, jerk, or force by a violent twist.
to take away by force: to wrest a knife from a child.
to get by effort: to wrest a living from the soil.
to twist or turn from the proper course, application, use, meaning, or the like; wrench.
a wresting; twist or wrench.
a key or small wrench for tuning stringed musical instruments, as the harp or piano, by turning the pins to which the strings are fastened.
Origin of wrest
1synonym study For wrest
Other words for wrest
Other words from wrest
- wrester, noun
- un·wrest·ed, adjective
- un·wrest·ing, adjective
Words that may be confused with wrest
- rest, wrest
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use wrest in a sentence
The version of the song that I had indeed remembered correctly, wrested from the back of my brain!
15 Years After Napster: How the Music Service Changed the Industry | Alex Suskind | June 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWe have now seen that even at great sacrifice, rights are wrested from authority rather than be gifted by them.
Arab Spring: Revolutionaries Reflect on the One-Year Anniversary | Mike Giglio | January 25, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe sponsoring networks, media, and third-party groups have wrested away control from the candidates and the national parties.
Mark McKinnon: Presidential Primary Debate Process Has Gone Rogue | Mark McKinnon | January 9, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd there is no equivalent of Cheney, who from the White House virtually wrested power away from the intelligence agencies.
The secretary of State has wrested control of USAID and influence over billions in foreign assistance.
At the battle of Bassano, of the five flags wrested from the enemy Lannes captured two with his own hands.
Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonHe was not the first, nor the worst man who has wrested Scripture into the service of his own angry passions.
A Charming Fellow, Volume II (of 3) | Frances Eleanor TrollopeKentucky and Missouri might have been wrested from Union control, and Arkansas freed from the presence of the invader.
Stone's River | Wilson J. VanceHe would have wrested race supremacy and the leading place in civilization from the Aryan for the Hamitic races.
The Two Great Republics: Rome and the United States | James Hamilton LewisHe has penetrated into the forbidding ice-worlds at the two poles, and many are the secrets he has wrested from Nature.
Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury
British Dictionary definitions for wrest
/ (rɛst) /
to take or force away by violent pulling or twisting
to seize forcibly by violent or unlawful means
to obtain by laborious effort
to distort in meaning, purpose, etc
the act or an instance of wresting
archaic a small key used to tune a piano or harp
Origin of wrest
1Derived forms of wrest
- wrester, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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