[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That wrenches or twists; of the nature of a wrench. Also fig.
1618. Gainsford, Glory Eng., II. xxv. 315. Yet we haue still gone forward, and could not bee pull’d backe by any wrenching arme whatsoeuer.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., vii. 99. The stem must be … strengthened to resist the wrenching stresses.
1889. Gunter, That Frenchman! xix. 248. He … gives this wrist … a wrenching twist.
1894. T. Pinkerton, Blizzard, 105. But the thought of his own only child, a girl of fifteen, who had been identified with most of his triumphs, gave him a wrenching pang.
Hence Wrenchingly adv.
1884. L. Macbean, trans. Buchanan’s Spir. Songs, 28. He was stripped and wrenchingly Stretched out with cruel strain.
