different between thrust vs wrench

English

Etymology

From Old Norse þrysta, from Proto-Germanic *þrustijan?, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *trewd-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???st/
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

thrust (countable and uncountable, plural thrusts)

1. (fencing) An attack made by moving the sword parallel to its length and landing with the point.

2. A push, stab, or lunge forward (the act thereof.)

3. The force generated by propulsion, as in a jet engine.

4. (figuratively) The primary effort; the goal.

Synonyms

• (push, stab, or lunge forward): break, dart, grab
• (force generated by propulsion): lift, push
• (primary effort or goal): focus, gist, point

Translations

Verb

thrust (third-person singular simple present thrusts, present participle thrusting, simple past and past participle thrust or thrusted)

1. (intransitive) To make advance with force.

2. (transitive) To force something upon someone.

3. (transitive) To push out or extend rapidly or powerfully.

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

4. (transitive) To push or drive with force; to shove.
5. (intransitive) To enter by pushing; to squeeze in.
   • 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero

     And thrust between my father and the god.

6. To stab; to pierce; usually with through.

Synonyms

• (advance with force): attack, charge, rush
• (force upon someone): compel, charge, force
• (push out or extend rapidly and powerfully): dart, reach, stab

Translations

Anagrams

• 'struth, Hurtts, struth, thurst, truths

English

Alternative forms

• (15^th century): wrenche; (15^th century): wrinche; (16^th century): wringe

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: r?nch IPA^(key): /??nt????/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrench, from Old English wren?, from Proto-Germanic *wrankiz (“a turning, twisting”). Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).

Noun

wrench (plural wrenches)

1. A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug. [from 16th c.]
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.

2. An injury caused by a violent twisting or pulling of a limb; strain, sprain. [from 16th c.]
3. (obsolete) A trick or artifice. [from 8th c.]
   • c. 1210, MS. Cotton Caligula A IX f.246

     Mon mai longe liues wene; / Ac ofte him liedh the wrench.

4. (obsolete) Deceit; guile; treachery. [from 13th c.]
5. (obsolete) A turn at an acute angle. [from 16th c.]
6. (archaic) A winch or windlass. [from 16th c.]
7. (obsolete) A screw. [from 16th c.]
8. A distorting change from the original meaning. [from 17th c.]
9. (US) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes; a spanner. [from 18th c.]
10. (Britain) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.
11. A violent emotional change caused by separation. [from 19th c.]
12. (physics) In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body. [from 19th c.]
13. (obsolete) means; contrivance

    • But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost; but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain, as a quarrel for war; and that of Naples, as a wrench and mean for peace

14. In coursing, the act of bringing the hare round at less than a right angle, worth half a point in the recognised code of points for judging.

Synonyms

• (tool): spanner (UK, Australia)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wrenchen, from Old English wren?an, from Proto-Germanic *wrankijan?. Compare German renken.

Verb

wrench (third-person singular simple present wrenches, present participle wrenching, simple past and past participle wrenched)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To violently move in a turn or writhe. [from 11th c.]
2. (transitive) To pull or twist violently. [from 13th c.]

3. (transitive, obsolete) To turn aside or deflect. [from 13th c.]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To slander. [from 14th c.]
5. (transitive, obsolete) To tighten with or as if with a winch. [from 16th c.]
6. (transitive) To injure (a joint) by pulling or twisting. [from 16th c.]

7. (transitive) To distort from the original meaning. [from 16th c.]
8. (transitive, obsolete) To thrust a weapon in a twisting motion. [from 16th c.]
9. (intransitive, fencing, obsolete) To disarm an opponent by whirling his or her blade away. [from 18th c.]
10. (transitive) To rack with pain. [from 18th c.]
11. (transitive) To deprive by means of a violent pull or twist. [from 18th c.]
12. (transitive) To use the tool known as a wrench. [from 19th c.]

Translations

Further reading

• wrench on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Wrench on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons