Agric. Now dial. Also 9 wreest, wrist. [Incorrect spelling of rest, var. REEST sb., by association with prec. and WREST v.] A piece of iron († or wood) fastened beneath the mould-board in certain plows. b. A mould-board.
1653. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr., xxviii. 190. The Plough-sheath, Wrest, Beam, Share, and Coulter … retain these names clearly in most parts.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agricult., 207. Any Plough … having its true Pitch, with its true cast on the Sheild-board and short Wrest.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 165. The earth of the furrow, in rising up from the fore part of the wrest, is soon resisted by the mold-board, and turned over suddenly.
1778. [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agriculture, 6 March 1776, note. The wrest is … the piece of wood, or iron,… which is meant to wrest open and clear effectually the bottom of the plow-furrow.
1796. Boys, Agric. Kent (1813), 64. The furrows … are opened with an old plough, with a wrest at each side.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 408. The wrest or mould-board.
1887. Parish & Shaw, Kentish Dial., 191. Wreest,… that part of a Kentish plough … on which it rests against the land ploughed up.
1893. S. E. Worc. Words, 49. Wrist (Wrest or Rest) of a plough, a piece of wood below the shield-board, which wrests the earth aside from the plough.
