different between wring vs worm

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wryngen, wringen, from Old English wringan, from Proto-Germanic *wringan? (compare West Frisian wringe, Low German wringen, Dutch wringen, German ringen ‘to wrestle’), from Proto-Indo-European *wren??- (compare Lithuanian reñgtis (“to bend down”), Ancient Greek ????? (rhímpha, “fast”)), nasalized variant of *wer??- ‘bind, squeeze’. More at worry.

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?ng, IPA^(key): /???/
• Homophone: ring
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

wring (third-person singular simple present wrings, present participle wringing, simple past wrung or wrang or (obsolete) wringed, past participle wrung or (obsolete) wringed)

1. To squeeze or twist (something) tightly so that liquid is forced out. See also wring out.
   • 1838, Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, London: Wiley and Putnam, Chapter 13, p. 152,^[1]

     […] we contrived to satisfy the cravings of thirst by suffering the shirts to become saturated, and then wringing them so as to let the grateful fluid trickle into our mouths.

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz, Chapter 21, p. 154,^[2]

     […] he had sometimes wrung a dirty dishcloth into a customer’s soup before taking it in, just to be revenged upon a member of the bourgeoisie.

   • 1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, New York: Knopf, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 15,^[3]

     “I feel I’ve been wrung through a wringer,” Maggie said.

2. To extract (a liquid) from something wet, especially cloth, by squeezing and twisting it.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Judges 6.38,^[4]

     He rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece.

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 1, Chapter 14, p. 107,^[5]

     [He] wrung the urine out of his perriwig, and lifting up a large stone, flung it with such force against the street-door of that house from whence he had been bedewed, that the lock giving way, it flew wide open,

   • 1952, Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road, New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969, Chapter 8, p. 128,^[6]

     Heinz could have wrung enough vinegar out of Cally’s look to run his pickle works.

   • 1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: William Morrow, Chapter 8, p. 381,^[7]

     […] he was thrilled by the spectacle of wringing his own blood from the sodden gauze pad into the sodden towel.

3. To obtain (something from or out of someone or something) by force.

   The police said they would wring the truth out of that heinous criminal.

   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act III, Scene 1,^[8]

     No, Harry, Harry, ’tis no land of thine;

     Thy place is fill’d, thy sceptre wrung from thee,

   • 1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, London: C. Rivington and J. Osborn, Volume 1, Letter 31, p. 268,^[9]

     Torture should not wring it from me, I assure you.

   • 1910, Emma Goldman, “Prisons: A Social Crime and Failure” in Anarchism and Other Essays, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, pp. 129-130,^[10]

     […] the enormous profits thus wrung from convict labor are a constant incentive to the contractors to exact from their unhappy victims tasks altogether beyond their strength […]

   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: John Day, Chapter 3, p. 35,^[11]

     He took his life from this earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver.

   • 1970, Robertson Davies, Fifth Business, Toronto: Macmillan, Part 6, Chapter 2, p. 278,^[12]

     […] his confidences were not wrung from him against his will but gushed like oil from a well

4. To draw (something from or out of someone); to generate (something) as a response.

   Synonyms: elicit, provoke

   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act V, Scene 1,^[13]

     Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!

   • 1846, Charlotte Brontë, “Evening Solace” in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, London: Smith, Elder, p. 122,^[14]

     And thoughts that once wrung groans of anguish,

     Now cause but some mild tears to flow.
5. To hold (something) tightly and press or twist.

   (Synonyms: strangle, throttle)

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Leviticus 1.15,^[15]

     The priest shall bring it [a dove] unto the altar, and wring off his head,

   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, London: Chapman & Hall, Volume 1, Chapter 16, p. 195,^[16]

     Margaret could not speak for crying; but she wrung his hand at parting.

   • 1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island, Boston: Page, Chapter 40, p. 316,^[17]

     The Haunted Wood was full of the groans of mighty trees wrung in the tempest,

   • 1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, New York: Vintage, 1956, “April Eighth, 1928,” p. 379,^[18]

     Jason stood, slowly wringing the brim of his hat in his hands.

   • 2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, London: Atlantic Books, p. 202,^[19]

     […] I had to wring your ears to make you do any work.

6. To cause pain or distress to (someone / one's heart, soul, etc.).

   Synonyms: torment, torture

   • 1622, Francis Bacon, The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seuenth, London: Matthew Lownes and William Barret, p. 37,^[20]

     […] the King began to find where his Shooe did wring him, and that it was his depressing of the House of YORKE, that did ranckle and fester the affections of his People.

   • 1702, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Oxford, 1707, Volume 1, Part 1, Book , p. 60,^[21]

     […] too much griev’d, and wrung by an uneasy and streight Fortune;

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, London: J. Tonson, Act 1, Scene 1, p. 3,^[22]

     […] didst thou taste but half the Griefs

     That wring my Soul, thou cou’dst not talk thus coldly.

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case,” p. 135,^[23]

     […] a stringent and profound slumber which not even the nightmares that wrung me could avail to break

   • 1927, Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse, London: The Hogarth Press, Part 3, section 6, p. 275,^[24]

     And then to want and not to have—to want and want—how that wrung the heart, and wrung it again and again!

7. To slide two ultraflat surfaces together such that their faces bond.
   • 2010, Mikhail Grishin, Advances in Solid State Lasers: Development and Applications, BoD – Books on Demand (?ISBN), page 186:

     The uncertainty of wringing effect is 6.9 nm, which can be determined by wringing the same gauge block on the base plate repeatedly. The uncertainty of optical components can be estimated by wave-front errors of each components, ?/10~ ...

   • 2001, Jennifer E. Decker, Nicholas Brown, Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, European Optical Society, Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Lasertechnik, Recent Developments in Traceable Dimensional Measurements: 20-21 June 2001, Munich, Germany, Society of Photo Optical (?ISBN)

     The surface finish of the ceramic platen appears very similar to that of the gauge block by eye . The pack experiment method to evaluate phase correction is valuable in that the differences associated with wringing two different materials and ...

   • 1997, Bulletin of NRLM.

     The number of optical wringing procedures performed for each gauge block was five , and the number of measurements for each wringing procedure was eleven . Figure 10 shows the dispersion of ( EGB + ESUB ) for gauge block GB - 100A ...

   • 1922, Canada. Patent Office, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks

     A gauge block provided with a flat surface adapted to have wringing engagement with a similar surface of another block and having uniformly distributed approximately straight scratches extending in all directions. 5. A gauge block provided ...

8. (intransitive, obsolete) To twist, as if in pain.

   Synonym: writhe

   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act V, Scene 1,^[25]

     […] ’tis all men’s office to speak patience

     To those that wring under the load of sorrow.

9. (obsolete) To give an incorrect meaning to (words, teachings, etc.).

   Synonyms: distort, pervert, twist, wrest

   • 1572, John Whitgift, An Answere to a Certen Libel Intituled, An Admonition to the Parliament, London: Humfrey Toy, p. 39,^[26]

     Lord how dare these men thus wring the scriptures?

10. (obsolete) To subject (someone) to extortion; to afflict or oppress in order to enforce compliance.
    • c. 1590,, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act V, Scene 1,^[27]

      To wring the widow from her custom’d right,

    • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: John Partridge, p. 144,^[28]

      […] the Merchant aduenturers haue beene often wronged and wringed to the quicke,

11. (nautical) To bend or strain out of its position.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

wring (plural wrings)

1. A powerful squeezing or twisting action.

   I grasped his hand and gave it a grateful wring.

   • 1697, John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, London: Samuel Briscoe, Act III, p. 45,^[29]

     Lo[ry]. […] I have been in a lamentable fright, Sir, ever since your Conscience had the Impudence to intrude into your Company.

     Y[oung] Fas[hion]. Be at peace; it will come there no more: My Brother has given it a wring by the Nose, and I have kick’d it down Stairs.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London: Cassell, Part 3, Chapter 15, p. 123,^[30]

     He was still holding me by the wrist, and at that he gave it quite a wring.

   • 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chapter 6, p. 63,^[31]

     I tried not to give his poor hand too much of a wring (another of my bad habits); but he took all I gave and even seemed to hang on for a little more.

2. (obsolete) Pain or distress.
   • 1637, Robert Monro, Monro His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment, London, “The first Observation,” p. 3,^[32]

     When we have good dayes we slight them, when they are gone, we sinke under the wring of sorrow, for their losse;

References

• wring in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• wring in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wrynge (“press”), from Old English wringe.

Noun

wring

1. (archaic) A device for pressing or compressing, especially for cider.

   Synonym: press

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, London: James R. Osgood, Volume 2, Phase 3, Chapter 23, p. 32,^[36]

     They tossed and turned on their little beds, and the cheese-wring dripped monotonously downstairs.

Derived terms

• cider-wring
• wring-house

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

wring

1. first-person singular present indicative of wringen
2. imperative of wringen

Middle English

Verb

wring

1. Alternative form of wryngen

English

Etymology

From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“snake, worm”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr?mis, possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Cognate with Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Danish orm, Norwegian orm. Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian var?mas (“insect, midge”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”), Ancient Greek ????? (rhómos, “woodworm”). First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.

Doublet of wyrm, which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??m/
• (US) enPR: wûrm, IPA^(key): /w?m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Noun

worm (plural worms)

1. A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
2. More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms.
3. (archaic) A type of wingless "dragon", especially a gigantic sea serpent.
4. (fantasy, science fiction) Either a mythical "dragon" (especially wingless), a gigantic sea serpent, or a creature that resembles a Mongolian death worm.
5. A contemptible or devious being.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalms 22:6,^[2]

     But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

6. (computing) A self-replicating program that propagates through a network.
7. (cricket) A graphical representation of the total runs scored in an innings.
8. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
   • 1683, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick exercises

     If the Worms of the Nut or Spindle be worn, the Spindle must be examin'd by the Smith

   1. A spiral instrument or screw, often like a double corkscrew, used for drawing balls from firearms.
   2. The spiral wire of a corkscrew.
   3. (anatomy) A muscular band in the tongue of some animals, such as dogs; the lytta.
   4. The condensing tube of a still, often curved and wound to save space.
   5. A short revolving screw whose threads drive, or are driven by, a worm wheel or rack by gearing into its teeth.
9. (obsolete) Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.
   • 1561, Geneva Bible, Acts 28:3-4,^[3]

     And when Paul had gathered a nomber of stickes, & laid them on the fyre, there came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. Now when the Barbarians sawe the worme hang on his hand, they said among them selues This man surely is a murtherer, whome, thogh he hathe escaped the sea, yet Vengeance hathe not suffred to liue.

   • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act III, Scene 4,^[4]

     […] No, ’tis slander,

     Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue

     Outvenoms all the worms of Nile […]

   • 1867, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (translator), The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, Volume I, Inferno, Canto 6, lines 22-24, p. 35,^[5]

     When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!

     His mouth he opened and displayed his tusks;

     Not a limb had he that was motionless.

10. (figuratively) An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one’s mind with remorse.
    • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, Scene 3,^[6]

      The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!

11. (mathematics) A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling.
12. (anatomy) The lytta.
13. (preceded by definite article) A dance, or dance move, in which the dancer lies on the floor and undulates the body horizontally thereby moving forwards.

Usage notes

Although the use of the "worm" to mean "dragon" or "serpent" is archaic, those meanings are in current use in the word "wyrm" which is a doublet of "worm". Wyrm is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Verb

worm (third-person singular simple present worms, present participle worming, simple past and past participle wormed)

1. (transitive) To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.

2. (intransitive) To move with one's body dragging the ground.
   • 1919, William Joseph Long, How animals talk: and other pleasant studies of birds and beast

     Inch by inch I wormed along the secret passageway, flat to the ground, not once raising my head, hardly daring to pull a full breath […].

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To work one's way by artful or devious means.

   • When debates and fretting jealousy / Did worm and work within you more and more, / Your colour faded.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To work (one's way or oneself) (into) gradually or slowly; to insinuate.

5. To effect, remove, drive, draw, or the like, by slow and secret means; often followed by out.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit

     They […] find themselves wormed out of all power.

6. (transitive, figuratively, in “worm out of”) To drag out of, to get information that someone is reluctant or unwilling to give (through artful or devious means or by pleading or asking repeatedly).

   • They […] wormed things out of me that I had no desire to tell.

   • He nodded. "Mum's the word, Mrs. Bunting! It'll all be in the last editions of the evening newspapers—it can't be kep' out. There'd be too much of a row if twas!" ¶ "Are you going off to that public-house now?" she asked. ¶ "I've got a awk'ard job—to try and worm something out of the barmaid."

7. (transitive, nautical) To fill in the contlines of (a rope) before parcelling and serving.
   • 1841, Benjamin J. Totten, Naval Text-Book:

     Ropes […] are generally wormed before they are served.

8. (transitive) To deworm (an animal).
9. (transitive) To cut the worm, or lytta, from under the tongue of (a dog, etc.) for the purpose of checking a disposition to gnaw, and formerly supposed to guard against canine madness.
10. (transitive) To clean by means of a worm; to draw a wad or cartridge from, as a firearm.

Translations

See also

References

• [7] The Free Dictionary, Farlex Inc., 2010.

Anagrams

• mrow

Cornish

Adjective

worm

1. Soft mutation of gorm.

Dutch

Alternative forms

• wurm

Etymology

From Middle Dutch worm, from Old Dutch *wurm, *worm, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr?mis. Compare English worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Danish orm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??rm/
• Hyphenation: worm
• Rhymes: -?rm

Noun

worm m (plural wormen, diminutive wormpje n)

1. worm, vernacular term for various, mostly legless invertebrates; often nematodes or legless arthropod larvae.

Derived terms

• aarsworm
• aasworm
• gewormte
• haringworm
• hazelworm
• houtworm
• lintworm
• meelworm
• oorworm
• paalworm
• regenworm
• ringworm

Descendants

• Afrikaans: wurm

See also

• pier

Middle English

Alternative forms

• werm, wirm, wurm, wyrm, wyrme, wrim, worme

Etymology

From Old English wyrm, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr?mis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wurm/, /?w?rm/, /?wirm/

Noun

worm (plural wormes or wormen)

1. A worm or similar small wormlike animal that lives in the ground; especially in the following special senses:
   1. A wormish insect that damages plants or plant-based material (e.g. a termite).
   2. A wormish insect that damages human remains.
   3. A parasitic worm; especially one living in the stomach.
2. A crawling animal; an animal that moves upon the ground.
3. An animal regarded as harmful and annoying.
4. A snake or snake-like monster.
5. A dragon, drake, or wyrm (mythological fire-breathing winged lizard)
6. A beast that inhabits Hell; causing suffering to its inhabitants.
7. A pauper, miser, or other contemptuous individual.
8. regret, forgiveness; the twanging of the heartstrings.
9. evil, malice; that which promotes maliciousness.
10. (biblical) The snake of Eden.
11. (Christianity, rare) Satan, the Devil.
12. (veterinary, rare) A muscle underneath the tongue of a dog seen as increasing the risk of rabies.

Related terms

• glouworm
• wormwode

Descendants

• English: worm
• Scots: worm, wirm

References

• “w?rm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-02.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English worm.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?wo?.mi/

Noun

worm m (plural worms)

1. (computer security) worm (self-replicating program)