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Wring   /rɪŋ/   Listen
Wring

verb
(past & past part. wrung, obs. wringed; pres. part. wringing)
1.
Twist and press out of shape.  Synonyms: contort, deform, distort.
2.
Twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish.  Synonym: wrench.
3.
Obtain by coercion or intimidation.  Synonyms: extort, gouge, rack, squeeze.  "They squeezed money from the owner of the business by threatening him"
4.
Twist, squeeze, or compress in order to extract liquid.



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"Wring" Quotes from Famous Books



... that noise," said Bott, who was kicking violently at the door, but could not break it down. "Shut up, or I'll wring your neck." ...
— The Bread-winners - A Social Study • John Hay

... "'in our hours of ease'—that's now, Major, so far as we're concerned—'uncertain, coy, and hard to please.' That's what Miss King ought to have been, but wasn't. Nobody can say she was coy about the lobsters. 'When pain and anguish wring the brow.' That's the position in which Simpkins finds himself. 'A ministering angel thou.' That's what Miss King should be if she's what I call a true woman, a womanly woman. But she evidently isn't. She hasn't the maternal instinct at all strongly developed. If she had, her ...
— The Simpkins Plot • George A. Birmingham

... chased us, by dint of good management. As for eating or drinking, the first was out of the question; though we began to make some little provision to slake our thirst, by exposing our handkerchiefs to the drizzle, in order to wring them when they should become saturated with water. The coolness of the weather, however, and the mist, contributed to prevent our suffering much, and I do not know that I felt any great desire for either food or water, until towards the middle of the day. Then ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper

... needn't see him again before he leaves..." At that moment the possibility of having to look in Darrow's face and hear him speak seemed to her more unendurable than anything else she could imagine. Then, on the next wave of feeling, came the desire to confront him at once and wring from him she knew not what: avowal, denial, justification, anything that should open some channel of escape to the ...
— The Reef • Edith Wharton

... through, when he stepped on a slippery stone and sat down in the water and made the fellows laugh. But they acted first-rate with him when they got across; they helped him to take off his trousers and wring them out, and they wrung them so hard that they tore them a little, but they were a little torn already; and they wrung them so dry that he said they felt splendid when he got them on again. One of his feet went through the side of the trouser leg that was torn before it got ...
— The Flight of Pony Baker - A Boy's Town Story • W. D. Howells

... and water-traps; He tore the walls and ripped the floors To reach the pipes beyond, And excavations in the street And 'neath the side-walk yawned; And daily as he entered up The items in his book The plumber's face wore a serene And retrospective look. And Jones would wring his hands and cry, "Woe, woe, and utter woe! Ah me! that taxes should be so high And rents should be so low!" Then he would give the Smith the house As instalment on account Of its repairs, and notes of hand For the rest ...
— Humour of the North • Lawrence J. Burpee

... office of governor twice, and with good repute; in 1630, Sir John Harvey succeeded the former. He was the champion of monopolists; he would divide the land among a few, and keep the rest in subjection. He fought with the legislature from the first; he could not wring their rights from them, but he distressed and irritated the colony, levying arbitrary fines, and browbeating all and sundry with the brutality of an ungoverned temper. His chief patron was Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, and therefore disfavored ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... out same ez he useter do at the t'others, 'Shet up, ye pop-eyed buzzard!' Wa'al, sir, the Cunnel jes blinked at him, an' braced herself ez stiff, an' yelled! I 'lowed 'twould take off the roof. An' Tobe said he'd wring her neck ef she warn't so mewlin'-lookin' an' peaked. An' he tuk her up an' walked across the floor with her, an' she shet up; an' he walked back agin, an' she stayed shet up. Ef he sot down fur a mi nit, she yelled so ez ye'd think ye'd be deef fur life, an' ye 'most hoped ye would ...
— 'way Down In Lonesome Cove - 1895 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... andirons wink at the sleepy cat! Cream or lemon, two lumps or one. Here aloft is brisker business. There is storm upon the roof. The tempest holds a carnival. And the winds pounce upon the smoke as it issues from the chimney-pots and wring it by the neck as they bear ...
— Chimney-Pot Papers • Charles S. Brooks

... to the ascent of the northern mountain; though Richard and I would first beg a little space in which to drain the water from our boots, and to wring some pounds' weight of it from our clothes. That done, we fell in line once more; and being so fortunate as to hit upon a ravine which led to the cliff-crowned summit, the climb was shorn of half its toil and difficulty. Nevertheless, by the ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... Bush Arbor effort was a fine sample of his fervid speech: "All these and many more wrongs have been heaped upon you, my countrymen, without your consent. Your consent alone can give the least validity to these usurpations. Let no power on earth wring that consent from you. Take no counsel of fear; it is the meanest of masters; spurn the temptations of office from the polluted hands of your oppressors. He who owns only his own sepulcher at the price of such claims holds a heritage of shame. Unite ...
— Robert Toombs - Statesman, Speaker, Soldier, Sage • Pleasant A. Stovall

... some capers, or samphire, and some sweet butter; stir it well down till the liquor be half wasted, and now and then stir it: being finely and leisurely stewed, serve it on fine carved sippets, and wring on the juyce of a lemon, ...
— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May

... country. St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, great representative cities—what is their history? The story of dishonesty among officials, of bribery, stealing, and every possible crime that a man can devise to wring money from the people. This is no secret. It has all been exposed by the friends of morality. City governments are overthrown, the rascals are turned out, but in a few months the new officers are caught devising ...
— As A Chinaman Saw Us - Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home • Anonymous

... frequent occurrence than marriages and the attainment of majorities. But the difference between death and other forms of human experience lies in this, that we can gain no information about it. The dead man is wise, but he is silent. We cannot wring his secret from him. We cannot interpret the ineffable calm which gathers on the rigid face. As a consequence, when our thought rests on death we are smitten with isolation and loneliness. We are without company on ...
— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith

... women? By nature tender, trustful, kind, and fickle, Prone to forgive, and practised in forgetting? Let the fair things but rave their hour at ease, And weep their fill, and wring their pretty hands, Faint between whiles, and swear by every saint They'll never, never, never see you more! Then when the larum's hushed, profess repentance, Say a few kind false words, drop a few tears, Force ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 • Various

... fifteen minutes, is also satisfactory and harmless. A very good remedy which may be used with the above for quick relief, and to stop the child from crying, is the following: Fold a piece of flannel cloth (two thicknesses) the size of the baby's abdomen; wring out of very hot water and drop ten drops of turpentine over the surface,—at different spots,—of the flannel and lay on abdomen,—turpentine side next skin. Cover this with another piece of flannel,—two or three thicknesses, that has been dry-heated ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... o' little ways like this an' entertained me fine; but it was mighty hard to wring any useful work out of him. He used to prune the rose vines, and now and again he'd do a little dustin'; but once when I had to bake sourdough bread, I pointed out that the garden needed weedin', an' explained to him just what effect weedin' had on garden truck. He sez ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason

... thought he had better tell the whole story exactly as it had occurred, concealing only the fact that he had recognized the knight's face. "You had best too," he said, "mention nought about the white cloak. If we can catch the man of the hut in the swamp, likely enough the rack will wring from him the name of his employer, and in that case, if you are brought up as a witness against him you will of course say that you recognize his face; but 'tis better that the accusation should not ...
— Saint George for England • G. A. Henty

... in her feeling pleasure in prolonging Somerset's singleness. Paula might even be allowed to discover his wrongs when her marriage had put him out of her power. But to let her discover his ill-treatment now might upset the impending union of the families, and wring her own heart with the sight of Somerset ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy

... you make me long to wring your stiff neck. But I'll take your own consistency, as you call it. I don't notice you send that precious boy o' yourn to the Board School; and yet if 'tis good enough for Clem and Myra, 'tis ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... and I bequeath to you my revenge. If by any good luck you lay your hand on a certain man named Mordaunt, tell Porthos to take him into a corner and to wring his neck. I dare not say more ...
— Twenty Years After • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... with the exquisite beauty of line of a well-shaped bust. I might show how thorough acquaintance with the ideal nude foot would probably have much modified the foot-torturing boots and high heels, which wring the foot out of all beauty of line, and throw the body forward into an awkward and ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman

... for answer, she bent once more to sort and discard her pitiful treasures, to pause vaguely, consider, and wring her hands. Rudolph, in his turn, caught her by the arm, but ...
— Dragon's blood • Henry Milner Rideout

... good God are marvellous," he mused, as he went to his vestry, "and it is fitting that youth should find its mate. We grieve and wring our hearts—and nothing is final—and while there is life there is hope—that love may bloom again. Peace ...
— The Man and the Moment • Elinor Glyn

... follow the advice of an adversary; nevertheless it is right to hear it, that you may do the contrary; and this is the essence of good policy:—Sedulously shun whatever thy foe may recommend, otherwise thou may'st wring the hands of repentance on thy knees. Should he show thee to the right a path straight as an arrow, turn aside from that, and take ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... King Louis fly; one sees not reasonably towards what. As a maltreated Boy, shall we say, who, having a Stepmother, rushes sulky into the wide world; and will wring the paternal heart?—Poor Louis escapes from known unsupportable evils, to an unknown mixture of good and evil, coloured by Hope. He goes, as Rabelais did when dying, to seek a great May-be: je vais chercher un grand Peut-etre! As not only the sulky Boy but the wise grown Man is ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle

... Olga. And I can't say that either I or my family seem to have suffered much in the process. I feel almost uncannily well and strong now, and am a wolf for work. If nothing else happened when our apple-cart went over, it at least broke the monotony of life. I'm able to wring, in fact, just a touch of relish out of all this migrational movement and stir, and Casa Grande itself is already beginning to remind me of a liner's stateroom about the time the pilot comes aboard and the donkey-engines start to clatter up ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer

... that you were able to make yourself believe that you were anything you wished to think yourself. Whenever you wring my heart and deprive me of strength, I shall go somewhere alone, and when I have controlled myself, come back ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... stopped, his collar but half-way around his throat. Gretchen, brave, kindly, beautiful Gretchen! Now, by the Lord, that should not be! He would wring the vintner's neck. He snapped the collar viciously. He was not in an amiable mood this fair September morning. And when some one hammered on ...
— The Goose Girl • Harold MacGrath

... called at the house of my Genoese lady friends, and such as had not already fled I induced to take shelter on board. At one lady's house the fair owner was in such a state of indecision I could bring her to no resolution, as a shell passed or fell near her house she would wring her hands and cry out, "What shall I do? My beautiful furniture! My beautiful house!" but she never said one word about her husband who was in a fort above the town, which fort I knew must soon be attacked, or her infant child who was with her. At last on my telling her ...
— Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. - A Memoir • Lady Biddulph of Ledbury

... them get away. I'll wring the ears off the lot of you if they get to the spaceport. He was there; he was the one who spotted us. He can identify my ship. Now get out and find them. I'll pay a thousand vikdals Martian to the man who brings me ...
— Master of the Moondog • Stanley Mullen

... Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed afterwards, when they received due vengeance for their crimes (as they did receive it), that after all shameful and horrible indignities, she was bound to a tree, and there burned slowly in her husband's sight, stifling her shrieks lest they should wring his heart by one additional pang, and never taking her eyes, to the last, off that beloved face. And so died (but not unavenged) Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,—a Spanish ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley

... their canteens, fierce to wring every mite of water from them, and they polished at their swollen and watery features with coat sleeves ...
— The Red Badge of Courage - An Episode of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... tears. Dry them, Sweet, they wring my heart to greater pain than all thy secrets, and for this one thou boldest I will take thy shoulder-knot instead." She looked up surprised at the sudden surcease of storm, and seeing his handsome face becalmed, she wondered at the ...
— Mistress Penwick • Dutton Payne

... of her mother's full white petticoats and turned to wring it dry with her red and blistered hands, a look that was perilously near disgust was on her face—for though she had done her duty heroically and meant to do it until the end, there were brief moments when it sickened her to desperation. ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... but take leave. After bowing to Madame Hulot and Hortense, who came in from the garden on purpose, he went off to walk in the Tuileries, not bearing—not daring—to return to his attic, where his tyrant would pelt him with questions and wring ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac

... seized with his accustomed skill. Much of the cruelty and repulsive harshness of these soldiers, we are taught to forget in contemplating their forlorn houseless wanderings, and the practical magnanimity, with which even they contrive to wring from Fortune a tolerable scantling of enjoyment. Their manner of existence Wallenstein has, at an after period of ...
— The Life of Friedrich Schiller - Comprehending an Examination of His Works • Thomas Carlyle

... give no heed to that, bein' comfortable with th' hot wans.) An' I wint to th' dure, an', whin Mike Duffy come by on number wan hundherd an' five, ringin' th' gong iv th' ca-ar, I hollered to him: 'Ring out th' old, ring in th' new.' 'Go back into ye'er stall,' he says, 'an' wring ye'ersilf out,' he says. 'Ye'er wet ...
— Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War • Finley Peter Dunne

... chance at those wet clothes of yours," he advised. "Meanwhile we'd better wring this out," and with businesslike despatch he began gathering that dripping black hair into the folds of a Turkish towel. ...
— The Innocent Adventuress • Mary Hastings Bradley

... moment he stood very still, gazing up at the moon, then, all in a moment, had caught my hand to wring it hard; but the pain of his grip was a joy and the look on his face a ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol

... come after him, had carefully studied the conditions prescribed to the painter by the material in which he works. Although he was a master of the literary criticism of art, he had artists among his intimate companions, and was too eager for knowledge not to wring from them the secrets of technique, just as he extorted from weavers and dyers the secrets of their processes and instruments. He makes no ostentatious display of this special knowledge, yet it is present, giving a firmness and accuracy to what ...
— Diderot and the Encyclopaedists - Volume II. • John Morley

... or mothered her. Old Dubois knew most about her, but old Dubois, a semi-paralyzed colossus, "doped" most of the time, kept his thick lips closed. "An excellent girl" was all that any one could wring from him. As she had begun life on Naapu by being dame de comptoir for him, he had some right to his judgment. She had eventually preferred independence, and had forsaken him; and if he still had no quarrel with her, that speaks loudly for her many virtues. Whether Dubois had sent for her originally, ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... I said to him, finally. "I can wring your neck, or break your back, or twist your arms off, and by God! I've a notion to do them all. If you make any attempt to get away I'm going to kill ...
— The Way of a Man • Emerson Hough

... la Barde, I come From Oliver Clisson, knight and mighty lord, Bringing you tidings: I make bold to hope You will not count me villain, even if They wring your heart, nor hold me still in hate; For I am but a mouthpiece after all, A mouthpiece, too, of one who wishes well To ...
— The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems • William Morris

... will and grind in dust, Dark Afric's poor, degraded child; Wring from his sinews gold accursed, And boast your ...
— The Anti-Slavery Harp • Various

... my sudden and unexpected appearance caused no little surprise. Indeed, the first lieutenant considered it right to send the gig on shore at that late hour to apprise the captain of my return, and Bob Cross had just time to give me a wring of the hand before he jumped into the boat, and went away to ...
— Percival Keene • Frederick Marryat

... of a portion of the Free Church of Scotland to reject our alms on the ground that we are "slave-drivers," after sending missionaries to solicit them. And we have seen Mr. O'Connell, the "irresponsible master" of millions of ragged serfs, from whom, poverty stricken as they are, he contrives to wring a splendid privy purse, throw back with contumely, the "tribute" of his own countrymen from this land of "miscreants." These people may exhaust their slang, and make blackguards of themselves, but they cannot ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various

... easy to ye because we got away with the Southern Cross and the Legaspi—but when ye mount the gallows ye'll see the best of old Thirkle's tricks was to keep his tracks clear and things running sweet. They'll take you and wring it all out of ye, the whole murderous story, and swing ye from a high place. Ye'll ...
— The Devil's Admiral • Frederick Ferdinand Moore

... not to be mastered by lying upon padded sofas and toying with a little Berlin wool-work. It involved pain, resistance, a stern revision of things hitherto taken for granted. The secrets which they designed to wring from nature and from life were not likely to be revealed to the self-indulgent and the dilettante. The sisters had a message from the sphere of indignation and revolt. In order that they should learn it as well as teach it, it was necessary that they should arrive ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse

... afford you that consolation amidst the pangs of absence. May heaven be propitious in what yet remains before you! I will even weary it with my prayers. May it return you to my arms safe and unhurt, and no other calamity shall wring from me a murmur, or ...
— Italian Letters, Vols. I and II • William Godwin

... if you are wise you will refuse. You have met Pambasa. Well, Nehesi is Pambasa multiplied by ten, a rogue, a thief, a bully, and one who has Pharaoh's ear. He will make your life a torment to you and clip every ring of gold that at length you wring out of his grip. Moreover the place is wearisome, and I am fanciful and often ill-humoured. Do not thank me, I say. Refuse; return to Memphis and write stories. Shun courts and their plottings. Pharaoh himself is but a face and a puppet through which other voices talk and other eyes shine, and ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard

... the destruction of so much that was beautiful, so much of English art that has vanished, we find that there were three great eras of iconoclasm. First there were the changes wrought at the time of the Reformation, when a rapacious king and his greedy ministers set themselves to wring from the treasures of the Church as much gain and spoil as they were able. These men were guilty of the most daring acts of shameless sacrilege, the grossest robbery. With them nothing was sacred. Buildings consecrated to God, holy vessels ...
— Vanishing England • P. H. Ditchfield

... them as they wronged their king May he wring their hearts as they wrung mine, Till they pour their blood for his revels like wine, And to women ...
— Pike County Ballads and Other Poems • John Hay

... him! The devastating disillusionment! She had a vague desire to run after him, to state her case to him, to wring some understanding from him of what life was to her. She felt a cheat and a sneak to his unsuspecting ...
— Ann Veronica • H. G. Wells

... he wring from his victim, in spite of all his efforts—the poor fellow was insensible, and in that condition was cast off from the grating, and taken below to his hammock. There was no doctor on board, so the unfortunate seaman was left to the clumsy though well-meant ministrations ...
— The Voyage of the Aurora • Harry Collingwood

... down behind rocks with rifles pointed to kill him, who had shot, may be, the comrade of his heart, he gave the last drop of his water, the last drop of his melting strength, the last drop of comfort he could wring out of his seared, gallant soul. In war, they say,—and it is true,—men grow callous: an afternoon of shooting and the loss of your brother hurts you less than a week before did a thorn in your dog's foot. But it is only compassion ...
— From Capetown to Ladysmith - An Unfinished Record of the South African War • G. W. Steevens

... I'll do it," he said, catching fire again. "I'll grow rich on these bony mountains—it isn't only the riches, mind you, but they are the proof—I'll wring it out in triumph, not in water, but in gold—from ...
— The Happy Foreigner • Enid Bagnold

... soul is born again. Laugh like a boy at splendors that are sped; To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb; My judgments seal the dead past with its dead, But never bind a moment yet to come. Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep, I lend my arm to all who say, ...
— Elementary Theosophy • L. W. Rogers

... away first, to leave them free, yet could n't help lingering outside to see how tenderly the girls parted from their father. Tom had n't a word to say for himself, for men don't kiss, caress, or cry when they feel most, and all he could do to express his sympathy and penitence, was to wring his father's hand with a face full of respect, regret, and affection, and then bolt up stairs as if the furies were after him, as they were, in ...
— An Old-fashioned Girl • Louisa May Alcott

... she would have gone to the ends of the earth with such a happy crew, but now she only shook her head again and was resolute. No one could wring a reason from her, and ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 6 • Various

... attaining the hotel at the conclusion of the evening's performance. Indeed, he was earlier than many, for most of the male members had promptly adjourned to the convenient bar-room, with whatsoever small sums of money they could wring from out the reluctant palm of Albrecht. Winston chanced to pause for a moment at the cigar stand to exchange a pleasant good-night word with the seemingly ...
— Beth Norvell - A Romance of the West • Randall Parrish

... should be done, now it should be done!' and then, 'Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel!' and then with a wild look into Richard's face—'That was a strange thing to do to a lady. They can never lay that to me!' Afterwards she began to wring her hands, with a cry of 'Fie, poison, poison, poison!' looking at Richard all ...
— The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay • Maurice Hewlett

... same relation towards him as Horatio to Altamont in the play of the Fair Penitent. A character of this sort seems indispensable. This friend might gain interviews with the mother, when the son was refused sight of her. Like Horatio with Calista, he might wring his [her?] soul. Like Horatio, he might learn the secret first. He might be exactly in the same perplexing situation, when he had learned it, whether to tell it or conceal it from the Son (I have still Savage ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... desired effect, for every urchin on the ground went industriously to work to wring the necks of the wounded birds. Judge Temple retired toward his dwelling with that kind of feeling that many a man has experienced before him, who discovers, after the excitement of the moment has passed, that he has purchased pleasure at the price of misery ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper

... Look at me who was present from the first! Ye know what things I saw; then came a test, My first, befitting me who so had seen: 'Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured, Him Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life? {305} What should wring this from thee?'—ye laugh and ask. What wrung it? Even a torchlight and a noise, The sudden Roman faces, violent hands, And fear of what the Jews might do! Just that, And it is written, 'I forsook and fled': {310} There was my trial, and it ended thus. Ay, ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

... intelligent conversation like yours. But I must have peace. One of these days I shall strangle her with my hands. The Lord will forgive me and understand. I am full of nerves. Is it my fault? She twists them as the women wring out clothes at the fountain. It is not a ...
— Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) • F. Marion Crawford

... leaned forward. His expression and tone were passionless as those of a statistician proffering a tabulation: his words were fit to wring the ...
— From a Bench in Our Square • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... sneered, losing his temper; "we're in the clutches of a vulgar, skinflint Dutchman, and he'll wring us dry whether or not we curse him out. Didn't I tell you that Philip Selwyn had nothing to do with it? If he had, and I was wrong, our journey here might as well have been made to Neergard's office. For any man who will ...
— The Younger Set • Robert W. Chambers

... Fink's step was heard in the corridor, and, entering Anton's room, he cried, "Halloo, Anton, what's up now? John slinks about as if he had broken the great china vase; and when old Barbette saw me, she began to wring ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... of Picardo tules. Me, I think they grew within hearing of the mission bells of Santa Clara! And the gallo [rooster] which crows is old and fat, and feeds too much upon the grapes that are sour! Adios! I must haste to give congratulations to the Senor Jack, that he will have opportunity to wring the necks of those loud-crowing gallos of the ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower

... all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow, But no man's virtue nor sufficiency To be so moral when he shall endure The ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett

... Such notes as from the Breton tongue Marie translated, Blondel sung? O! born Time's ravage to repair, And make the dying muse thy care; Who, when his scythe her hoary foe Was poising for the final blow, The weapon from his hand could wring, And break his glass, and shear his wing, And bid, reviving in his strain, The gentle poet live again; Thou, who canst give to lightest lay An unpedantic moral gay, Nor less the dullest theme bid flit On wings of unexpected wit; In letters ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... Summer you are roaming Idly in the fields and forests; In the Winter you are cowering 90 O'er the firebrands in the wigwam! In the coldest days of Winter I must break the ice for fishing; With my nets you never help me! At the door my nets are hanging, 95 Dripping, freezing with the water; Go and wring them, Yenadizze! Go and dry them in the sunshine!" Slowly, from the ashes, Kwasind Rose, but made no angry answer; 100 From the lodge went forth in silence, Took the nets, that hung together, Dripping, freezing ...
— The Song of Hiawatha - An Epic Poem • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... impracticable and impatient enthusiast. Talleyrand, who under the Directory took charge of foreign affairs, was a scamp; and, clever as he was, was unduly contemptuous of America, where he had lived for a time in exile. He attempted to use the occasion of the appearance of an American Mission in Paris to wring money out of America, not only for the French Treasury, but for his own private profit and that of his colleagues and accomplices. A remarkable correspondence, which fully revealed the blackmailing attempt made by the agents of the French Government on the representatives ...
— A History of the United States • Cecil Chesterton

... crawl from his refuge and call somebody, when—dark and dreadful ending to a tragic day—he found that he was too much intertwined with umbrellas and canes to move a single step. He was afraid to yell! When I have said this of Larry Ruggles I have pictured a state of helpless terror that ought to wring tears from every eye; and the sound of Sarah Maud's beloved voice, some seconds later, was like a strain of angel music in his ears. Uncle Jack dried his tears, carried him upstairs, and soon had him in breathless fits of laughter, while Carol so made the other ...
— The Birds' Christmas Carol • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... despair came across me, I gave relief to the oppression of heart that I felt by words, and groans, and heart rending sighs: but nature became wearied, and this more violent grief gave place to a passionate but mute flood of tears: my whole soul seemed to dissolve [in] them. I did not wring my hands, or tear my hair, or utter wild exclamations, but as Boccacio describes the intense and quiet grief [of] Sigismunda over the heart of Guiscardo,[34] I sat with my hands folded, silently letting fall a perpetual stream from my eyes. Such was ...
— Mathilda • Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

... front of the hotel with the driver grinning uncertainly, while a soldierly figure sprang over the wheel to wring the hand of Smith, the gardener. Another on the horse's back replaced his service cap at an extraordinary angle and waited nonchalantly for the ...
— The Dude Wrangler • Caroline Lockhart

... cabin opened and Beatrice came out, her cheeks and eyes fresh and bright from the sea. Of course Bastianello at once ran to help Teresina wring out the wet things and make up her bundle, and Beatrice came towards Ruggiero, who took off his cap and stood bareheaded in the sun as she went by, and then walked slowly behind her, at a respectful distance. To reach the beginning of the ascent ...
— The Children of the King • F. Marion Crawford

... issue being this— This most chimerical and wonderous thing From whose dumb mouth not even the gods could wring Truth, nor antithesis: Then, what I think is, This creature—being chief among men's sphinxes— Is eloquent, and overflows with story, ...
— The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems • Frances Fuller Victor

... : absinto. worn (out) : eluzita. worry : maltrankvil'igi, -igxi; cxagrenadi, gxenadi. worship : adori; Diservo; kulto. worth : ind'o, -eco, valoro. wound : vundi. wrap : faldi, envolvi. wreath : girlando. wreck, (ship-) : sxippereo; periigi. wren : regolo. wrestle : lukti. wretched : mizer(eg)a. wring : tordi. wrinkle : sulketo, sulkigi. wrist : manradiko. ...
— The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer

... second some awful fear came across my heart that I did not understand. I now know that it was a premonition of what was to wring my own heart and I cowered against the old tree in agony. Gregory Goodloe was not more than six feet away from me on the other side of the budding, fragrant hedge, and in the moonlight I could see the beautiful strength of his golden head and strong placid face, on which lines ...
— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... to the weakness that makes a man a brute. It always grieved or disgusted her to see it in others, and now it was very terrible to have it brought so near not in its worst form, by any means, but bad enough to wring her heart with shame and sorrow and fill her mind with dark forebodings for the future. So she could only sit mourning for the Charlie that might have been while watching the Charlie that was with an ache in her heart which found no relief ...
— Rose in Bloom - A Sequel to "Eight Cousins" • Louisa May Alcott

... the case), if not as the whole football squad rolled into one. Whether he really saw me, then or thereafter, I don't know; he wore a sort of green shade over his eyes. Of course I met him in due form. I tried not to give his poor hand too much of a wring (another of my bad habits); but he took all I gave and even seemed to hang on for a little more. He sat quietly to one side for a while, and I tried not to act the bull of Bashan again. Anyhow, he didn't start a second time. Presently ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... crying while I am getting my supper. Morning will come in due course, and in the forenoon I care not how much I cry for those that are dead and gone. This is all we can do for the poor things. We can only shave our heads for them and wring the tears from our cheeks. I had a brother who died at Troy; he was by no means the worst man there; you are sure to have known him—his name was Antilochus; I never set eyes upon him myself, but they say that he was singularly fleet of ...
— The Odyssey • Homer

... all the pertness within her crumbled into nothingness. "That's—the—whole trouble with you, Zillah Forsyth!" she stammered. "You never give a hang whether anything's nice or not; all you care is whether it's fun!" Quite helplessly she began to wring her hands. "Oh, how do I know which one of you girls to follow?" she demanded wildly. "How do I know anything? How does ...
— The White Linen Nurse • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... problems of the nascent science which includes both Life and None Life" and wants to train up a devoted band of workers, with the Sanyasin mind, who would keep alive the flame kindled by him, and who, by acute observation and patient experiment would "wring out from Nature some of her most jealously guarded secrets" and who would thus lead to the establishment of a great Indian School of Science and to the "building of the greater India yet to be." There would be no academic limitation here to the widest possible diffusion ...
— Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose - His Life and Speeches • Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

... I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two together, and this was still worse to me, for ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... the commonwealth, and ought to cherish it as his own body. Alexander the Great was wont to say, "He hated that gardener that plucked his herbs or flowers up by the roots." A man may milk a beast till the blood come; churn milk and it yieldeth butter, but wring the nose and the blood followeth. He is an ill prince that so pulls his subjects' feathers as he would not have them grow again; that makes his exchequer a receipt for the spoils of those he governs. No, let him keep his own, not affect his subjects'; strive ...
— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson

... of whiting and 1/2 oz. of oleic acid with 1 gal. of gasoline. Stir and mix thoroughly. Soak pieces of gray outing flannel of the desired size—15 by 12 in. is a good size—in this compound. Wring the surplus fluid out and hang them up to dry, being careful to keep them away from the fire or an open flame. These cloths will speedily clean silver or plated ware and ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... be loosed—I was nailed upon the tree, Of the pangs I suffered for you—bear awhile a few for me! Fear not, though the waters whelm you; fear not, though ye see no land! Know ye not your God is with you, guiding with a Father's hand? Cords may wring, and winds may freeze you, shivering on the sullen sea, Yet the life that burns within you liveth ...
— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley

... niggard praise I fling To bards who soar where I ne'er stretched a wing, That man I hold true master of his art Who with fictitious woes can wring my heart, Can rouse me, soothe me, pierce me with the thrill Of vain alarm, and, as by magic skill, Bear me to Thebes, to Athens, ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace

... mince it as small as grated bread, with halfe a pound of Marrow; season it with Salt, beaten Cloves, Mace, Nutmeg a little Onion, and some of the outmost rind of a Lemon minced very small, and wring in the juyce of halfe a Lemon, and then mix all together, then make a piece of puff Past, and lay a leaf therof in a silver Dish of the bigness to contain the meat, then put in your meat, and cover it with another leaf of the same Past, and bake it; and when ...
— The Compleat Cook • Anonymous, given as "W. M."

... was to get the squatter girl into his possession. He had not forgotten the threats he had made in other days, and in another hour, he would wring from her the name ...
— The Secret of the Storm Country • Grace Miller White

... popularity of the Crown Prince. And Annunciata, for a time at least, would relax. In her new remorse she made frequent visits to the sickroom, passing, a long, thin figure, clad in black, through lines of bowing gentlemen, to stand by the bed and wring her hands. But the old King did not even ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... to seek a more popular form of relief than the bishop had chosen. As she paced up and down the room in evident agitation, every now and then stopping short to wring her hands when terrible thoughts came crowding, she became in her own ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand

... capital lady abbess: she would keep the nuns in order, I warrant her; no easy matter! Break the glass against my mouth—he! he! How she would send the holy utensils flying at the nuns' heads occasionally, and just the person to wring the nose of Satan should he venture to appear one night in her cell in the shape of a handsome black man. No offence, madam, no offence, pray retain your seat,' said he, observing that Belle had started up; ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... this is a picnic for a boy at this time of year. I'm going to wring the worst of it out, and then row your boat back up the river for you. Why, long before I go home my luxurious fishing suit will be dried on me. Saves pressing, you know, Bessie. And by cutting a few sticks like clothes-pins ...
— Dick the Bank Boy - Or, A Missing Fortune • Frank V. Webster

... wring all his experiences from him at once, without waiting a moment. Emil smiled tolerantly and stood looking down at her with his old, brooding gaze, while the French girls fluttered about him in their white ...
— O Pioneers! • Willa Cather

... wring your Hands and wonder Why Such slipshod Work the Magazines will buy, Don't grumble at the Editor, for he Must serve the Public, e'en as ...
— The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne • Gelett Burgess

... conscious of a gnawing pain at his heart. He retreated as he had come. There are disappointments which wring us, and there are those which inflict a wound whose mark we bear to our graves. Such are so keen that no future gratification of the same desire can ever obliterate them: they become registered as a permanent loss of happiness. Such a one was Stephen's now: the crowning aureola of the dream had ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy

... considerable part were conveyed under extended credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers of the public lands, had accumulated, which ...
— A Compilation of Messages and Letters of the Presidents - 2nd section (of 3) of Volume 2: John Quincy Adams • Editor: James D. Richardson

... Yasmini over in the window, and she would give them mock messages to carry, very seriously. Babu Sita Ram was stirred out of a meditative coma and sent hurrying away, to come back after a little while and wring his hands. ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy

... idolises one hour and hates the next. No, we do not part for ever; through life I shall be at your side, either to worship and adore you, to be all in all to you, in spite of man and laws, and duties and ties; or else to haunt your path, to spoil your joys, to wring your soul. Ellen, I must be the blessing or the curse of your life. Never shall I be indifferent to you. You have refused, in ignorance, in madness, you have refused to be my wife. You shall be my victim! Either you shall love me as wildly, as passionately as I love ...
— Ellen Middleton—A Tale • Georgiana Fullerton

... clothes, take such as have spots of iron, wring out, dip a wet finger in oxalic acid and rub on the spot, then dip in salt and rub on and hold on a warm flatiron, and the spot will immediately disappear; rinse again, rubbing the place a little with ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous

... of popular sovereignty he deduces from this, "the sacred right of constituents to dismiss their delegates;" to seize them by the throat if they prevaricate, to keep them in the right path by fear, and wring their necks should they attempt to vote wrong or govern badly. Now, they are always subject ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... Daughter discovers that nature intended her to be a hospital nurse, and she takes advantage of a period when her mother, being occupied in tending a younger brother through scarlatina cannot offer a determined opposition, to wring an unwilling consent from her father, and to leave her home in order to carry out her plan. This phase, however, does not last many weeks, and she is soon back once more on the parental hands. Thus the years pass on, the monotony of neglecting her home being varied by occasional ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99, September 6, 1890 • Various

... calling on you to join hands. Are you afraid to strike a blow for your homes? Must I go and tell them that sent me that the Irishman is a coward as well as a slave? There's fighting to be done, if there's only men to do it—fighting with the men who wring the life's blood out of you and your land— fighting with the toadies who are paid by England to grind you down— fighting with the blasphemers who rob your priests and your chapels— fighting with the soldiery ...
— Kilgorman - A Story of Ireland in 1798 • Talbot Baines Reed

... this morning, that I'd like to wring everybody's neck for them," the average woman argues to herself; "my proper course—I see it clearly—is to creep about the house, asking of everyone that has the time to spare to trample ...
— They and I • Jerome K. Jerome

... and over that she was "so sympathetic." He meant, of course, that she had wept over him. Flossy's tears flow like rain if you crook your finger at her, and tears wring the heart of a man like Bronson. To think he was going to marry her! I just looked at him, I remember, as he stood so straight and tall before me, and said to myself, "Well, you dear, honest, loyal, clever ...
— The Love Affairs of an Old Maid • Lilian Bell

... hand!" exclaimed the lover, as he paced the room in long strides. "I wish that during the night he would wring the neck of all these visitors. Now; then, she has her innings. Today and tomorrow this little despot's battle of Ligny will be fought and won; but the day after to-morrow, ...
— Gerfaut, Complete • Charles de Bernard

... Pig and truss his head backward loking over his back, then make such Pudding as you like best, and fill his belly with it, your Pudding must be stiff, then sew it up, and rost your Pig, when it is almost enough, wring upon it the Juice of a Limon, and when you are ready to take it up, wash it over with yolks of Eggs, and before they can dry, dredge it with grated bread mixed with a little Nutmeg and Ginger, let your Sauce be Vinegar, Butter and Sugar, ...
— The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet • Hannah Wolley

... "And don't wring your hands in that absurd fashion, and don't stand first on one foot and then on the other, as if you were scared out of ...
— Patty at Home • Carolyn Wells

... practical suggestion for the future I conclude my report, with the observation that the twin villages of Lynton and Lynmouth deserve the greatest possible prosperity. Nature, represented by "Ragged Jack," the "Devil's Cheese Wring," and Watersmeet, is lovely beyond compare; and Art could have no better illustration than that furnished by the unsurpassed resources of ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, 19 April 1890 • Various

... poems, and have furnished their friends and admirers with explanatory notes. Byron recorded the motif and occasion of the Bride of Abydos while the poem was still in the press. It was written, he says, to divert his mind, "to wring his thoughts from reality to imagination—from selfish regrets to vivid recollections" (Diary, December 5, 1813, Letters, ii. 361), "to distract his dreams from ..." (Diary, November 16) "for the ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... no farther, however, for Abe and Morris had taken the stairs three at a jump and began to wring his hands effusively upon the principle of any ...
— Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things • Montague Glass

... or incapable of originality, sought distinction by ever more and more elaborate and involved allusions; and their works, in their own day held the more sublime the more incomprehensible they were, are now the despair of those who would wring from them ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... hystericus, which the patient tries to dislodge by repeated swallowing. This is followed by a feeling of suffocation, the patient drags at her neck-band, throws herself into a chair, pants for breath, calls for help, and is generally in a state of great agitation. She may tear her hair, wring her hands, laugh or weep immoderately, and finally swoon. The recovery is gradual, is accompanied by eructations of gas, and a large quantity of pale, limpid, urine may be ...
— Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia • Isaac G. Briggs

... other two are essentially one. The mutual ideal is the ideal of co-operation. There is no antagonism between these ideals. The old fallacy that the boss must get just as much as possible out of the workman and pay just as little as possible, and that the workman must do just as little as he can and wring from the boss just as much pay as he can for what he does, and that, therefore, their interests are diametrically opposed, has been all but exploded. It was based upon ignorance, upon prejudice, and upon privately interested misrepresentation. ...
— Analyzing Character • Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb

... joined them. And Chad Buford could understand. For, many a rebel soldier—"hopeless now for his cause," as Richard Hunt was wont to say, "fighting from pride, bereft of sympathy, aid, and encouragement that he once received, and compelled to wring existence from his own countrymen; a cavalryman on some out-post department, perhaps, without rations, fluttering with rags; shod, if shod at all, with shoes that sucked in rain and cold; sleeping at night ...
— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox

... he cried, with eyes aflame, "Do what thou wilt with me, I will not bring Doom to my land, and soil my honored name: From these sealed lips thou shalt no secret wring." ...
— Fleurs de lys and other poems • Arthur Weir

... thought it proper that defenders of their country should have endurance in the highest degree and be entirely superior to fear. However, you need no Lycurgus to tell you; you can surely see for yourself that, if one of these men were captured in war, no tortures would wring a Spartan secret out of him; he would take his scourging with a smile, and try whether the scourger would not be tired sooner than ...
— Works, V3 • Lucian of Samosata

... as meek as a lamb to one who has me at his mercy, and can wring and torture my soul as he pleases, What canst thou mean to send back my varlet without a letter?—I will send away by day-dawn another fellow upon another beast for what thou hast written; and I charge thee on thy allegiance, that thou dispatch him ...
— Clarissa, Or The History Of A Young Lady, Volume 8 • Samuel Richardson

... take a lot of teaching, and anything new appears to be a tremendous difficulty to them. Moreover, they have to learn the meaning of an Antipodean ganger's frequent cry, "Double up, there! Double up!" And they do not like to work so hard that every now and then a stop must be made to wring out the dripping shirt. Worst of all, there is seldom ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay

... behaviour was unheard of. Vauvenargues replied: "My friends, you laugh too easily. I am sorry for these poor creatures, obliged to ply such a profession to earn their bread. The world is full of sorrows which wring my heart; if we are to be kind only to those who deserve it, we may never be called upon at all. We must be indulgent to the weak who have more need of support than the virtuous; and we must remember that the errors of the unfortunate are always caused ...
— Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France • Edmund Gosse

... duties still have to be done, in the midst of sorrow and trial. There is something in homely material duties which heals and calms the mind and gives it power to come back to itself. And in sudden calamities those who know how to make use of their hands do not helplessly wring them, or make trouble worse by clinging ...
— The Education of Catholic Girls • Janet Erskine Stuart

... I may my hands wring, Thy mother I cannot please. O Isaac, blessed may'st thou be! Almost my wit I lose for thee, The blood of thy body so free I ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous

... to receive company, her habit was to wring her hands very nervously, to flush a little, and come forward hurriedly yet hesitatingly, wishing herself meantime at Jericho. She was, at such crises, sadly deficient in finished manner, though ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... its lost darling, whom in evil hour Some wilder pulse of nature led astray And left an outcast in a world of fire, Condemned to be the sport of cruel fiends, Sleepless, unpitying, masters of the skill To wring the maddest ecstasies of pain From worn-out souls that only ask to die, Would it not long to leave the bliss of Heaven, Bearing a little water in its hand To moisten those poor lips that plead in vain ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... comes back, wring his neck, and heave him down here,' said Jim. 'I want a word with him on the subject of short cuts. I say, is there much ...
— The Pothunters • P. G. Wodehouse

... I had lost my bulb bed. I couldn't wring the neck of the raider, much as I should have liked to do so, but with an arm made strong by a just and righteous rage I lifted that big brute high above my head and hurled him over into his own yard. He sailed through the air like a black and ...
— A Woman Named Smith • Marie Conway Oemler

... children are not so determined to wring a meaning out of every sight and every sound. Children play. Play is a child's own technique. Through it he seizes the strange unknown world around him and fashions it into his very own. He recreates through play. And through creating, ...
— Here and Now Story Book - Two- to seven-year-olds • Lucy Sprague Mitchell

... my tub, I merrily sing, While the white foam rises high; And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring, And fasten the clothes to dry; Then out in the free fresh air they swing, ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... would wring her hands and beg at such times, a world of entreaty in her voice. And then old Mr. King would interfere, carrying Polly off, and declaring it was beyond all reason for ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney

... misery and excitement by the insistence of the chant, began to wring her hands. The words said nothing to her but the rhythmic repetition of the notes told her a story as old as life itself: that life passes swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and without hope; that our days are as grass and as the clouds that are consumed and are no more; ...
— The Heart of the Desert - Kut-Le of the Desert • Honore Willsie Morrow

... wind began to fail, and he knew well that a puff coming down the river might take the ship aback, and drive her on shore before there was time to drop an anchor. For an instant her sails fluttered. He began to dance about and wring his hands, looking at the captain's belt as if he expected every moment to see the pistol sticking in it pointed at his head; but happily for him the sails again filled, and the breeze increasing, the ship, after ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston



Words linked to "Wring" :   fleece, overcharge, gazump, motion, hook, pluck, gouge, bleed, twist, rob, surcharge, twine, squelch, morph, crush, mash, wrench, plume, squash, movement, soak, contort



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