[f. WRENCH v. + -ER1.]
1. A machine or instrument for wrenching or wringing. rare.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XIX. l. 892. Sourysshe thynges … bere downe the meete as it were a pressour other a wrencher [MSS. wrynge].
1833. S. Warren, Diary Late Physician, I. 380. Before proceeding to use our screws, or wrenchers, we once more looked and listened.
2. One who or that which wrenches or twists. Also fig.
1847. in Home Life Sir D. Brewster (1869), 190. [Thou wert] The pillar of thine own beloved fane; The wrencher of its chill and crushing chain.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xvii. 415. The wrencher of a civil institution to his own individual aggrandisement.
