wrest : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: wrest	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for wrest
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
wrest v obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically; "wrest the knife from his hands"; "wrest a meaning from the old text"; "wrest power from the old government"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Wrest \Wrest\, n. 1. The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion. --Hooker. 2. Active or moving power. [Obs.] --Spenser. 3. A key to tune a stringed instrument of music. The minstrel . . . wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the wrest, or key, with which he tuned his harp. --Sir W. Scott. 4. A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the buckets is determined. {Wrest pin} (Piano Manuf.), one of the pins around which the ends of the wires are wound in a piano. --Knight. {Wrest plank} (Piano Manuf.), the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Wrest \Wrest\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wrested}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wresting}.] [OE. wresten, AS. wr[?]stan; akin to wr[?][?] a twisted band, and wr[c6][?]n to twist. See {Writhe}.] 1. To turn; to twist; esp., to twist or extort by violence; to pull of force away by, or as if by, violent wringing or twisting. [bd]The secret wrested from me.[b8] --Milton. Our country's cause, That drew our swords, now secret wrests them from our hand. --Addison. They instantly wrested the government out of the hands of Hastings. --Macaulay. 2. To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort. Wrest once the law to your authority. --Shak. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor. --Ex. xxiii. 6. Their arts of wresting, corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text. --South. 3. To tune with a wrest, or key. [Obs.]