different between wryest vs wrest

English

Alternative forms

• wriest

Adjective

wryest

1. superlative form of wry: most wry

Anagrams

• twyers

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