Definition of "wrest" in English

verb

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently.

2. (transitive) To obtain by pulling or violent force.

   • He wrested the remote control from my grasp and changed the channel.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To seize.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To distort, to pervert, to twist.

5. (transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.

noun

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) Ellipsis of saw wrest (“a hand tool for setting the teeth of a saw, determining the width of the kerf”); a saw set.

noun

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

noun

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.