different between wrest vs compel

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?st, IPA^(key): /??st/
• Rhymes: -?st
• Homophone: rest

Etymology 1

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wr?stan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijan?, (compare Proto-Germanic *wr?han? (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wr?þan? (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wrei?-, *wrey?- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Verb

wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently.
2. (transitive) To obtain by pulling or violent force.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To seize.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To distort, to pervert, to twist.
5. (transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.

Derived terms

• outwrest
• overwrest
• wrester

Related terms

• wrestle

Translations

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
2. (music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.
3. (obsolete) Active or motive power.
4. (obsolete, rare) Short for saw wrest (“a hand tool for setting the teeth of a saw, determining the width of the kerf”); a saw set.

Derived terms

• saw wrest
• wrest block
• wrest pin
• wrest plank

Etymology 2

Possibly a variant of wrist: see the quotation. Wrist is also derived from *wr?þan? (“to weave, twist”), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wrei?-, *wrey?- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”).

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.

Etymology 3

A misspelling of rest, probably influenced by wrest (etymology 1, verb and noun).

Noun

wrest (plural wrests)

1. (agriculture, dated, dialectal) A metal (formerly wooden) piece of some ploughs attached under the mouldboard (the curved blade that turns over the furrow) for clearing out the furrow; the mouldboard itself.

Derived terms

• turnwrest

References

Anagrams

• Trews, strew, trews, werst

Middle English

Noun

wrest

1. Alternative form of wrist

English

Etymology

From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Middle English fordriven ("to drive out, to lead to, to compel, to force"), from Old English fordr?fan. More at fordrive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?m?p?l/
• Rhymes: -?l
• Hyphenation: com?pel

Verb

compel (third-person singular simple present compels, present participle compelling, simple past and past participle compelled)

1. (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. (transitive) To overpower; to subdue.
3. (transitive) To force, constrain or coerce.

   Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.

   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 5, scene 1,

     Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.

4. (transitive) To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
5. (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.

   • Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Geraint and Enid

     I compel all creatures to my will.

6. (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.

   • in one troop compell'd

7. (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.

Derived terms

Related terms

• compulsion

Translations

References

• compel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “compel” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.