[syn: extort, squeeze, rack, gouge, wring]
4. twist, squeeze, or compress in order to extract liquid;
- Example: "wring the towels"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wring \Wring\, v. i.
To writhe; to twist, as with anguish.
[1913 Webster]
'T is all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Look where the sister of the king of France
Sits wringing of her hands, and beats her breast.
--Marlowe.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wring \Wring\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrung, Obs. Wringed; p.
pr. & vb. n. Wringing.] [OE. wringen, AS. wringan; akin to
LG. & D. wringen, OHG. ringan to struggle, G. ringen, Sw.
vr[aum]nga to distort, Dan. vringle to twist. Cf. Wrangle,
Wrench, Wrong.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To twist and compress; to turn and strain with violence;
to writhe; to squeeze hard; to pinch; as, to wring clothes
in washing. "Earnestly wringing Waverley's hand." --Sir W.
Scott. "Wring him by the nose." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
[His steed] so sweat that men might him wring.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The king began to find where his shoe did wring him.
--Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
The priest shall bring it [a dove] unto the altar,
and wring off his head. --Lev. i. 15.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, to pain; to distress; to torment; to torture.
[1913 Webster]
Too much grieved and wrung by an uneasy and strait
fortune. --Clarendon.
[1913 Webster]
Didst thou taste but half the griefs
That wring my soul, thou couldst not talk thus
coldly. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
3. To distort; to pervert; to wrest.
[1913 Webster]
How dare men thus wring the Scriptures? --Whitgift.
[1913 Webster]
4. 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.
[1913 Webster]
Your overkindness doth wring tears from me. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
He rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the
fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the
fleece. --Judg. vi.
38.
[1913 Webster]
5. To subject to extortion; to afflict, or oppress, in order
to enforce compliance.
[1913 Webster]
To wring the widow from her 'customed right. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The merchant adventures have been often wronged and
wringed to the quick. --Hayward.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Naut.) To bend or strain out of its position; as, to
wring a mast.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wring \Wring\, n.
A writhing, as in anguish; a twisting; a griping. [Obs.]
--Bp. Hall.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
wring
n 1: a twisting squeeze; "gave the wet cloth a wring" [syn:
squeeze, wring]
v 1: twist and press out of shape [syn: contort, deform,
distort, wring]
2: twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish; "Wring one's
hand" [syn: wring, wrench]
3: obtain by coercion or intimidation; "They extorted money from
the executive by threatening to reveal his past to the
company boss"; "They squeezed money from the owner of the
business by threatening him" [syn: extort, squeeze,
rack, gouge, wring]
4: twist, squeeze, or compress in order to extract liquid;
"wring the towels"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
146 Moby Thesaurus words for "wring":
afflict, agonize, ail, anamorphism, anamorphosis, asymmetry,
badger, bend, bite, blackmail, bloody, buckle, burn, chafe, claim,
claw, concentrate, contort, contortion, convulse, corkscrew,
crinkle, crook, crookedness, crucify, crumple, cut, decoct, demand,
detorsion, deviation, disproportion, distill, distort, distortion,
distress, essentialize, exact, exaction, excruciate, express,
extort, extortion, fester, force from, fret, gall, give pain,
gnarl, gnaw, gouge, grate, grind, gripe, harrow, hurt, imbalance,
impale, inflame, inflict pain, infuse, intort, irregularity,
irritate, kill by inches, knot, lacerate, lancinate,
levy blackmail, lopsidedness, macerate, martyr, martyrize, meander,
melt down, nip, pain, pierce, pinch, press, press out, prick,
prolong the agony, pry loose from, punish, put to torture, quirk,
rack, rankle, rasp, refine, rend, rend from, render, rending, rip,
rip from, ripping, rub, savage, scallop, scarify, screw,
serpentine, shake down, slink, snake, snatch from, soak, spring,
squeeze, stab, steep, sting, swirl, tear from, tearing, torment,
torsion, tortuosity, torture, try, turn, turn awry, tweak, twine,
twirl, twist, twist and turn, unsymmetry, warp, whirl, whorl, wind,
worm, wound, wrench, wrench from, wrenching, wrest, wresting,
wring from, wring out, wringing, writhe, wry