WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Wrench
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [OE. wrench deceit, AS. wrenc deceit, a twisting; akin to G. rank intrigue, crookedness, renken to bend, twist, and E. wring. Wring, and cf. Ranch, v. t.]
Definition : 1. Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem. [Obs.] His wily wrenches thou ne mayst not flee. Chaucer.

2. A violent twist, or a pull with twisting. He wringeth them such a wrench. Skelton. The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere. De Quincey.

3. A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.

4. Means; contrivance. [Obs.] Bacon.

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.)

Defn: 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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Wrench
Part of Speech : v.
Etymology : [OE. wrenchen, AS. wrencan to deceive, properly, to twist, from wrenc guile, deceit, a twisting. Wrench, n.]
Definition : 1. To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence. Wrench his sword from him. Shak. Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched With a woeful agony. Coleridge.

2. To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert. You wrenched your foot against a stone. Swift.

t. [imp. & p. p. Wrenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrenching.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913