different between wrench vs ferret

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

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?r'?t, IPA^(key): /?f???t/
• Rhymes: -?r?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English furet, ferret, from Old French furet, from Vulgar Latin *furittum (“weasel, ferret”), diminutive of Latin f?r (“thief”).

Noun

ferret (plural ferrets)

1. An often domesticated mammal (Mustela putorius furo) rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.
2. The black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes.
3. (figuratively) A diligent searcher.
   • 1998 July 2, Charles Nicholl, "Screaming in the Castle" in the London Review of Books, Vol. XX, No. 13:

     The most challenging documentary discoveries were made by a tenacious archival ferret, Dr Antonio Bertoletti. In 1879 he published his findings in a slim, refreshingly dry volume, Francesco Cenci e la sua Famiglia.

Related terms

• ferret-badger
• furtive

Translations

Verb

ferret (third-person singular simple present ferrets, present participle ferreting, simple past and past participle ferreted)

1. To hunt game with ferrets.
2. (by extension, transitive, intransitive) To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out.

Translations

Etymology 2

Italian fioretto

Noun

ferret

1. (dated) A tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.

   • red tape and green ferret

Further reading

• ferret on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• refret

French

Etymology

From fer +? -et.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?.??/

Noun

ferret m (plural ferrets)

1. (metal) tag; aglet, aiguillette

Further reading

• “ferret” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

ferret

1. third-person singular imperfect active subjunctive of fer?