[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
† 1. That wrings or extorts; practising extortion.
c. 1520. [see WRESTING ppl. a.].
2. That writhes; twisting or turning to and fro.
1798. R. Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy, 76. Where writhing earth-worms meet th’ unwelcome day.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xcvii. Smiles … raise the writhing lip with ill-dissembled sneer.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, x. 170. The forked and writhing lightning.
1882. T. S. Hudson, Scamper through Amer., 171. Our driver adroitly left one [rattlesnake] a writhing corpse.
transf. 1897. W. D. Howells, Landlord at Lion’s Head, 3. The children whose faces watched them through the writhing window-panes.
3. Marked or characterized by sinuous or tortuous movement.
1808. Jamieson, Wringle, a writhing motion.
1818. Hazlitt, Lect. Poets, iii. 128. The writhing agonies within.
1848. Lytton, Harold, v. A writhing attempt to smile.
Hence Writhingly adv., in a writhing manner.
1611. Cotgr., Tortuément,… wryingly, writhingly.
1822. New Monthly Mag., IV. 524. The monster … turned writhingly.
1883. Miss Broughton, Belinda, III. vii. Turning over writhingly in her chair.
