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Wrench   /rɛntʃ/   Listen
noun
Wrench  n.  
1.
Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem. (Obs.) "His wily wrenches thou ne mayst not flee."
2.
A violent twist, or a pull with twisting. "He wringeth them such a wrench." "The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere."
3.
A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.
4.
Means; contrivance. (Obs.)
5.
An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.
6.
(Mech.) The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be equivalent to a wrench.
Carriage wrench, a wrench adapted for removing or tightening the nuts that confine the wheels on the axles, or for turning the other nuts or bolts of a carriage or wagon.
Monkey wrench. See under Monkey.
Wrench hammer, a wrench with the end shaped so as to admit of being used as a hammer.



verb
Wrench  v. t.  (past & past part. wrenched; pres. part. wrenching)  
1.
To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence. "Wrench his sword from him." "Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woeful agony."
2.
To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert. "You wrenched your foot against a stone."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wrench" Quotes from Famous Books



... very first thing that boy did when the fight was ended—being still dazed, no doubt, by the blow on his head—was to play a bit of "Rory O'More" on his mouth-organ in order to make sure that his beloved "instrumentito" had not been injured by his fall. The sound of this air gave my heart a wrench, as I thought of poor Dennis; whose gallant race with death assuredly had saved all of us from dying without a chance to strike a blow. And both of our Otomi ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... general effect is of one simultaneous convulsed movement, one seething turmoil. In detail, the horror is most dramatically rendered. The malignancy of the devils, their brutal fury as they claw their prey, tear at their throats, and wrench back their heads; the utter horror and anguish of the victims, the confusion, the uproar, are given with a convincing realistic force, which makes the scene ghastly and terrible. In most representations of Hell, and especially of ...
— Luca Signorelli • Maud Cruttwell

... streyte [th]at he may not plye, but gaderyth yt by manere of a wyndlas; & he awght wrench a-side, or a litill[e] wrye, 472 hys gere stondyt[h] them in full[e] parlovs caas, hys sho / his hose / doblet, poynt & laas; & yff owght breke, sum tonges that be bade will[e] moke & say, "A knave hath ...
— Caxton's Book of Curtesye • Frederick J. Furnivall

... I should do if Mr. Coote saw me like this. (She begins to get up) And after calling me a Spartan Mother only yesterday, because I said that if any nice, steady young man came along and took my own dear little girl away from me, I should bear the terrible wrench in silence rather than cause either of them a moment's remorse. ...
— Second Plays • A. A. Milne

... out av me engine-room. I'll have no skipper buttin' in on me, tellin' me how to run me engines an' askin' me why in this an' that I don't go aisy on the coal. Faith, I've had thim do it—the wanst—an' the wanst only. Begorra, I'd have brained thim wit' a monkey wrench if they tried it ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne


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