[f. WRING v.]
1. The act of wringing, twisting or writhing; an instance of this. Also fig.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxi. 237. Bot he that forsake I shall gyf hym a wryng that his nek shall crak.
1611. Cotgr., Garrot,… a wring, or pinch in the wythers.
1634. Bp. Hall, Contempl., N. T., IV. xxiv. ¶ 1. The sighs, and tears, and blubbers, and wrings of a disconsolate mourner.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, III. i. My brother has given it a wring by the nose.
1789. T. Rawlins, Fam. Archit., 17. Arch-Stones, if any Wring or unequal Pressure happen,… will naturally settle close to each other.
1889. Century Mag., May, 85/1. She gave the shirt … a vicious wring.
fig. 1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. i. Have I not crush’t them with a cruell wring?
1628. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxii. 72. We sinke vnder the wring of sorrow.
b. The action of squeezing, pressing or clasping; a squeeze or clasp of the hand.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. iii. A Wring by the hand, with a Banquet in a corner. Ibid., V. iv. The Wring by the hand, and the Banquet is ours.
1605. Chapman, All Fools, II. i. D 4 b. Yet do I vnderstand … your secret iogges and wringes; Your entercourse of glaunces.
1621. Brathwait, Time’s Curtain drawn, M 8. A winke, a nodd,… a wringe, a kisse, Sent by some Childe.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, II. xvii. James, with one wring of the hand, retreated.
1894. J. A. Steuart, In Day of Battle, xvii. I gave the good soul’s hand a hearty Christian wring.
2. A sharp or griping pain, esp. in the intestines.
c. 1500. Roulis Cursing, 61. Ane of thir infirmiteis…, The stany wring, the stane and sand blind.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. xxviii. 195. Hens dung swallowed by hap, bringeth frets and wrings in the bellie.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 220. An horse … sore vexed with a suddaine gripe or wring in his belly, fell down.
1611. Cotgr., Trenchaison, a gripe, or a wring, as of the Chollicke, &c.
3. With down. That which is obtained by wringing.
1874. T. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, lii. To look at the last wring-down of cider.
