Forms: α. 1 wrencan, 2–4 wrenchen, 4, 6 wrenche, 5– wrench, 6 wrensh (7–8 rench, 8 arch. wranch). β. 4 wrynch, 5 wrynche, 6 wrinche, 6–7 wrinch. [OE. wrencan to twist, turn (also fig. to practise wiles), = OHG. renchan (MHG. and G. renken) to twist; of obscure relationship. Cf. WRENK v.]
I. † 1. intr. a. To perform or undergo a quick or forcible turning or twisting motion; to turn or writhe (about or aside). Also fig. Obs.
α. c. 1050. Indicia Monast. (MS. Cott. Tib. A III), fol. 97. Is þæs horderes tacen, þæt mon wrænce mid is hande, swilce he wille loc hunlucan.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 211. At pleȝe … þih and shonkes and fet oppieð, wombe gosshieð, and shuldres wrenchieð.
a. 1240. Wohunge, in O. E. Hom., I. 281. Hu þu was naket bunden faste to þe piler, þat tu ne mihtes nowhwider wrenche fra þa duntes.
c. 1375. [see WRENK v. 1].
1387. Trevisa, Higden, VII. 538. Anoon his knyȝtes come to Venus to have the ryng, but heo wrenchide [MS. α. wrynchede] and blenchide and strof longe tyme, but [etc.].
c. 1500. New Notbr. Mayd, 152, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 7. To fulfyll His wanton wyll, Wrenchynge from me alway.
c. 1530. Tindale, Num. xxii. 25. The asse … wrenshed into the walle and thrust Balams fote vnto the wall.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 258. This Torpedo … Doth not as other Fish, that wrench and wriggle When they be prickt.
1625. Bp. Mountagu, App. Cæsar., 319. Setting some rigorous Puritans aside, that like no Religion but one of their owne making,… there are few Calvinists … that will wrench at this.
1716. Gay, Trivia, III. 123. Should thy shoe wrench aside, down, down you fall.
β. c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 1538. Some gase wrynchand to and fra, And some gas hypand.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XVIII. (1845), 84. I can not wrynche by no wyle nor croke, My heart is fast upon so sure a hoke.
a. 1632. T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., I. I. xxii. (1642), 84. A charet…, wherein were certain yron-works, which with wrinching about gave an horrible sound.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 497. Rather then goe to law, to sit down by losse; and without wrinching forgo what was his due.
† b. Fencing. (See quots. and cf. WHIRL v. 3.)
1771. Lonnergan, Fencer’s Guide, Index, Wrenching, is to disarm, by whirling off your adversary’s blade, without setting any bounds to it, or whirling to any certain parade. Ibid., 88. When you parry with a Prime, wrench round into a Tierce.
2. Coursing. Of a hare, etc.: To veer or come round at less than a right angle; to rick.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 244. A deare … will holde on the same waye, and neuer turneth and wrencheth as a Hare will do before the Greyhounds.
1686. R. Blome, Gentl. Recreat., II. 98/1. Sometimes the Hare doth not Turn, but Wrench; for she is not properly said to Turn, except she Turn as it were round, and two Wrenches stand for a Turn.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Coursing, If the hare turns not quite about, she only wrencheth, in the sportsman’s phrase.
1839. Laws of Coursing, in Youatt, Dog (1845), 261. If a dog draws the fleck from the hare, and causes her to wrench or rick only.
II. 3. trans. To twist or turn (a thing) forcibly or with effort; to jerk or pull with a violent twist; = WREST v. 1. Also with advs., as about, round.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 210. Summe iuglurs beoð þet ne kunnen seruen of non oðer gleo, buten makien cheres, & wrenchen mis hore muð. Ibid., 222. Ich chulle wrenchen hire þiderward ase heo mest dredeð.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 146. Some will take theyr bowe and writhe and wrinche it.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 41. Small seedes, whiche be as they were wrenched or writhen about.
1590. Tarlton, News Purgat., 22. Though shee coulde not treade right, yet wrincht her shooe inward.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. xi. 444. The wood of such great plants, doth pinch and wrinche the graft mightily.
1674. [see WREATHE v. 6].
1718. Bp. Hutchinson, Witchcraft, 146. One [cart carrying corn] wrench’d Amy Duny’s House, upon which she came out in a Rage.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xiii. If you venture to call for assistance, I will wrench round your neck. Ibid. (1825), Talism., xxviii. Each strange and disproportioned feature wrenched by horror into still more extravagant ugliness.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxi. 422. The limestone of the principal branch is suddenly wrenched round.
1863. B. Taylor, Poets Jrnl., III. Watch of Night, 7. Blow, winds … And wrench the trees forlorn That struggle where they stand.
1876. Swinburne, Erechtheus, 588. All her flower of body,… With the might of the wind’s wrath wrenched and torn.
b. To tighten with or as with a wrest or wrench; † to tune (a harp, etc.) in this way. Also with up.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., H iij b. Orpheus with thy Harpe in hande, Arion also…, Wrinche vp your strings. Ibid., M ij b. Playing … vppon their Harpes, wrinched and set to the highest note of Diatesseron.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2253/1. The eye [of the spanner] is caught over the stud on the collar, so as to wrench it fast.
fig. 1607. Shaks., Cor., I. viii. 11. For thy Reuenge Wrench vp thy power to th’ highest.
† 4. fig. a. To draw or turn (a person) aside; to force out of the right way. Obs.
a. 1200. St. Marher., 4. Þæt tu ne maht nanes weies … wenden me ne wrenchen ut of þe weie.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 124. Nes þer nan þet mahte neauer eanes wrenchen hire … ut of þe weie.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 47. Ihesu crist … leue swa harc heorte halden to him, þat hare flesches eggunge … ne weorri hare heorte wit, ne wrenche ham ut or þe wei þat ha beoð in gongen.
† b. To draw out or expel (temptations); to withdraw or shelter (oneself); to divert or deflect towards another. (Cf. WRENK v. 2.) Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 244. Swuche þouhtes ofte, i vlesliche soulen, wrencheð ut sonre vlesliche tentaciuns þeone summe of þe uorme. Ibid., 294. Þet tu ne meiht þis scheld holden o þine heorte, ne wrenchen þe þerunder frommard þe deofles earewen. Ibid., 304. Ȝif þu seist þet þin unstrencðe ne muhte nout elles, þu wrenchest þine sunne o God.
† c. To misrepresent or slander (a person).
c. 1300. Pol. Songs (Camden), 157. Ȝef y am wreint in heore write, Thenne am y bac-bite.
5. To injure or pain (a person, the limbs, etc.) by undue straining or stretching; to rick, sprain, strain.
α. 1530. Palsgr., 785/1. I wrenche my foote, or any lymme, I put it out of joynt.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 235. A playster … upon places that be out of ioynt or wrenched.
1611. Florio, Storcersi le membra, to straine or wrench ones limmes out of ioint.
1638. W. Lisle, Heliodorus, VIII. 141. Bagoas … with a fall Had wrench’d his leg.
1729. Swift, Direct. Serv., Rules. You wrenched your foot against a stone, and were forced to stay.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 1064, note. To wrench the ankle.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxii. He … came down on the pavement and wrenched his leg.
fig. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xix. 204. Would it not have wrench’d and sprain’d his soul?
β. 1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 259. By wrinching their foote in drawing on their hose.
1583. trans. Maison Neuve’s Gerileon, 54 b. His fistes … so were wrinched that he felt them not.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 78. If an Ox be wrinched and strayned in his sinewes.
1684. J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 204. Leg out of Joynt or Wrinched.
b. To affect with severe pain, suffering or anguish; to distress or pain greatly; to rack.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., VII. xv. Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woful agony.
a. 1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VII. 872. Through the space Of twelve ensuing days his frame was wrenched.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 456. A spirit not my own wrenched me within.
transf. 1805. Wordsw., Prelude, V. 31. Should the whole frame of earth by inward throes Be wrenched.
6. To pull or draw with a wrench or twist; to twist or wrest out; to force, turn, etc., by a twisting movement: a. With preps., as from, into, out of, to.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 72. Swiftlye they determind … too wrinche thee nauye too southward.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 288. Wrench his Sword from him.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XII. 534. Turnus … Wrenched from his feeble hold the shining sword.
1730. Thomson, Winter (ed. 3), 360. When Justice … Wrench’d from their hand Oppression’s iron rod.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. vi. 201. Seizing his pistol, [he] wrenched it out of his hand.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 39. To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds.
1882. B. D. W. Ramsay, Recoll. Mil. Serv., I. i. 25. We wrenched out of the wall an iron hook.
fig. and in fig. context. 1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. iv. 14. How often dost thou … Wrench awe from fooles? Ibid. (1605), Lear, I. iv. 290. O most small fault,… Which like an Engine, wrencht my frame of Nature From the fixt place.
1790. Burns, ‘What needs this din,’ 20. Bruce … Wrench’d his dear country from the jaws of ruin.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 13. Nor could he [sc. Shakspere] have been wrenched from his place in the edifice … without equal injury to himself and it.
1851. Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, xvi. To wrench it [sc. a fixed opinion] out of their minds.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, xlii. III. 283. His gift was that which wrenches success out of the very jaws of failure.
refl. 1834. Sir F. B. Head, Bubbles fr. Brunnen, 129. As if the corpse … had wrenched himself once again into daylight.
b. With advs., as away, off, out, outward, up; asunder, open.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 364. Staying the midst of your toole vpon the horses neather iaw, wrinch the tooth outward.
1608. Shaks., Per., III. ii. 53. Sec. Gent. ’Tis like a coffin…. Cerimon. Wrench it open straight.
1639. G. Plattes, Discov. Infin. Treas., xii. 84. In a quarter of an houre the whole bush is wrenched up by the rootes.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. i. I had the fortune to … wrench out the pegs.
1796. Boys, Agric. Kent (ed. 2), 120. A hop-dog, to wrench up the poles.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, I. x. As he was speaking came a spasm, And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 251. He went up to the door, wrenched off the fastenings.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xxiv. Like a harp of which all the strings had been wrenched away except one.
1884. Manch. Exam., 11 Oct., 5/1. They wrench off cupboard doors to spare themselves the trouble of closing them.
fig. 1821. Hazlitt, Winterslow, x. (1850), 174. The revolutionary wheel which has of late wrenched men’s understandings almost asunder.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, x. Wrenching up her natural feelings of home.
1868. Tennyson, Lucretius, 218. It seems some unseen monster lays His … filthy hands upon my will, Wrenching it backward into his.
refl. 1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. i. What he had in tow … sometimes seemed to try to wrench itself away.
absol. (for refl.) 1912. P. A. Talbot, In Shadow of Bush, xxv. 277. At sight of us she wrenched free.
c. Without const. Also fig.
1655. Vaughan, Silex Scint., II. Starre, v. Desire that never will be quench’d, Nor can be writh’d, nor wrench’d.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 1273. To wrench the Darts which in his Buckler light.
1713. [Croxall], Orig. Canto Spenser, xx. (1714), 17. Those honest Hounds … Striving … to wranch the Chain, Which did her tender Limbs to th’ Rock upty.
1879. R. Bridges, Shorter Poems (1912), 248. The lazy cows wrench many a scented flower.
d. To seize or take forcibly; = WREST v. 4.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 63. They … put a barren Scepter in my Gripe, Thence to be wrencht with an vnlineall Hand.
1796. Southey, Joan of Arc, v. 474. If the iron rod Should one day from Oppression’s hand be wrench’d By everlasting Justice!
1810. Scott, Lady of Lake, V. vi. Wrenching from ruin’d Lowland swain His herds and harvest.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, vi. 92. Those from whose hands he had wrenched the means of subsistence.
1851. Gallenga, Italy, 13. To wrench from the reluctant hands of diplomacy exceptional modifications of those fatal treaties.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. ix. 143. Spoils had been wrenched from Spain such as hitherto were almost unexampled.
e. To deprive (a person) of something by wrenching or wresting.
1786. Burns, To Mountain Daisy, viii. Till wrench’d of ev’ry stay but Heav’n, He, ruin’d, sink!
7. To twist, alter or change from the right or true form, application or import; to wrest, pervert, distort. Cf. WREST v. 5.
1549. Latimer, 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 29. Wrenching thys text of scrypture … after their owne phantasie. Ibid. Thei wrench these wordes a wrye.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. iv. (Arb.), 89. Let his ryme and concordes be true,… and not darke or wrenched by wrong writing.
1593. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 100. Should impertinent secrecies be reuealed; … euery proposition wrinched to the harshest sense?
1641. Milton, Reform., II. Wks. 1851, III. 51. These devout Prelates … for these many years have not ceas’t in their Pulpits wrinching, and spraining the text. Ibid. (c. 1655), Sonn., ‘Cyriack, whose Grandsire,’ 4. [He] in his volumes taught our Lawes, Which others at their Barr so often wrench.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., viii. 211. They proceeded to wrench that power to the restraining of all dissentients.
1877. Winchell, Reconcil. Sci. & Relig., xii. 325. It is infinitely better to learn how God really did proceed, than to … wrench our Bible to make it fit a misconception of facts.
† b. To derive (a word) by alteration from another. Obs.
1623. Camden, Rem. (ed. 3), 70. Lewis, wrenched from Lodowick, which Tilius interpreteth, Refuge of the people.
8. Coursing. To divert, turn or bring round (a hare, etc.) at less than a right angle; to rick.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxiii. 345. When each man … notes Which Dog first turnes the Hare, which first the other coats, They wrench her once or twice, ere she a turne will take.
1839. Laws of Coursing, in Youatt, Dog (1845), 262. When a dog wrenches or ricks a hare twice following, without losing the lead, it is equal to a turn.
1840. Sportsman, II. 216. Wrenched by the one or the other of her pursuers, she seemed every moment almost in the jaws of one of them.
1865. Field, 4 March, 151/3. Rebe wrenched her hare half a dozen lengths in advance of Master Sweeney.
absol. 1876. Coursing Calendar, 10. Gardenia shot in front, and … turned; she then wrenched and killed.
1886. Field, 20 Feb., 227/2. Mr. Dent’s dog went up for the kill after wrenching once.
† 9. To drive, impel or thrust (a weapon) with a twisting movement. Obs. rare.
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, IV. i. 23. Scipio hath wrencht a sword into hys brest. Ibid., v. 322. He wrencht it to the pommel through his sides.
† b. refl. To force (oneself) in among others. Sc. Obs.–1
1729. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 454. [Such] persons … in a time of party and division, get in where they ought not to be, and when they have wrenched themselves in, talk [etc.].
10. absol. To pull or tug (at something) with a turn or twist. Also fig. and transf.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XII. 1132. Th’ incumbent Heroe wrench’d and pull’d and strain’d; But still the stubborn Earth the Steel detain’d.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IX. ix. ¶ 3. France has been wrenching and screwing at this Lorraine, wriggling it off bit by bit.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. xv. He … again grasped the stone … and wrenched at it.
1891. Kipling, Life’s Handicap, 245. The water snarled and wrenched and worried at the timber.
b. To come out by or as by wrenching.
1903. E. Childers, Riddle of Sands, vii. 75. The lower screw-plate on the stern post had wrenched out.
