different between wrest vs mulct

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 French mulcter (“to fine, punish”), from Latin multa (“penalty, fine”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?lkt/
• Rhymes: -?lkt

Noun

mulct (plural mulcts)

1. (law) A fine or penalty, especially a pecuniary one.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I:

     juries cast up what a wife is worth, / By laying whate'er sum in mulct they please on / The lover, who must pay a handsome price, / Because it is a marketable vice.

   • 1846, Thomas Babington Macauley, The History of England from the Accession of James II, Volume 3, Porter & Coates, Chapter XI:

     The Act of Uniformity had laid a mulct of a hundred pounds on every person who, not having received episcopal ordination, should presume to administer the Eucharist.

   • 1846, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, 10th ed., Volume I, page xxxvi, note

     […] by the Salic law, no higher mulct was imposed for killing, than for kidnapping a slave.

Translations

Verb

mulct (third-person singular simple present mulcts, present participle mulcting, simple past and past participle mulcted)

1. To impose such a fine or penalty.
2. To swindle (someone) out of money.

Translations