Word Direct Answers

What does "wring" mean?

Wring: 2. Hence, to pain; to distress; to torment; to torture. Too much grieved and wrung by an uneasy and strait fortune. Clarendon. Didst thou taste but half the griefs That wring my soul, thou couldst not talk thus coldly. Addison.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To distort; to pervert; to wrest. How dare men thus wring the Scriptures Whitgift.
  2. 3.To extract or obtain by twisting and compressing; to squeeze or press (out); hence, to extort; to draw forth by violence, or against resistance or repugnance; -- usually with out or form. Your overkindness doth wring tears from me. Shak. He rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece. Judg. vi.
  3. 4.5. To subject to extortion; to afflict, or oppress, in order to enforce compliance. To wring the widow from her 'customed right. Shak. The merchant adventures have been often wronged and wringed to the quick. Hayward.
  4. 5.(Naut.) To bend or strain out of its position; as, to wring a mast.
  5. 6.To writhe; to twist, as with anguish. 'T is all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow. Shak. Look where the sister of the king of France Sits wringing of her hands, and beats her breast. Marlowe.
  6. 7.A writhing, as in anguish; a twisting; a griping. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

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