/ɹɪŋ/
OriginPartly:
* from Middle English wring, wringe (“twisting or wringing (of the neck)”), from Middle English wringen, wryngen (verb); and
* from the modern English verb.
See further at etymology 1.
- transitiveOften followed by out: to squeeze or twist (something moist) tightly so that liquid is forced out.
“I didn’t have a towel so I just wrung my hair dry.”
“[…] Protagenes portrai[e]d Venus vvith a ſponge ſprinkled with ſvvéete vvater, but if once ſhe vvrong it, it vvould droppe blood: […]”
“O my belly ſeeths like a Porridge-pot, ſome cold water I ſhall boyle ouer elſe; my whole body is in a ſweat, that you may wring my ſhirt; feele here— […]”
- transitiveTo squeeze water (from an item of wet clothing) by passing through a wringer.
““I feel I’ve been wrung through a wringer,” Maggie said.”
- also, figuratively, transitiveOften followed by from or out: to extract (a liquid) from something wet by squeezing, twisting, or otherwise putting pressure on it.
“Put the berries into a cheesecloth and wring the juice into a bowl.”
“And whan he roſe vp early on the morow, he wrãge [wrange] yͤ dew out of the fleſe, and fylled a dyſſhe full of water.”
“At the end of this very long walk stands a woman in white marble, in posture of a laundress wringing water out of a piece of linen, very naturally formed, into a vast lavor the work and invention of M”
- also, figuratively, transitiveTo hold (someone or something) tightly and press or twist; to wrest.
“to wring someone’s hand”
“to wring the neck of a chicken”
“And some I vysyte with brennynge of fyre; / Of some I wrynge of the necke lyke a wyre; […]”
- also, figuratively, transitiveTo clasp and twist (hands) together due to distress, sorrow, etc.
“to wring one’s hands with worry”
“Come you whoſe loues are dead, / And whiles I ſing / Weepe and wring / Euery hand and euery head, […]”
“Ah! wherefore doſt thou wring thy tender Hands / In woeful Attitude?”
- transitiveTo bend or strain (something) out of its position; to wrench, to wrest.
“to wring a mast”
“[B]y the couetous prieſtes of Baall through defaulte of good & godly Counſayllours, whome (doubte ye not but this wicked rable founde meanes to wring out of fauour, & to remoue awaye from the Kynges p”
“Why, he wrong a club / Once in a fray out of the hande of Belzebub.”
- transitiveTo contort or screw up (the face or its features).
“Then would I laugh to ſee my lady pout, / And ſmyle when moſt ſhe wroung her mouth awry; […]”
“VVould'ſt haue me cry, run rauing vp & dovvn, / For my ſons loſſe? vvould'ſt haue me turn rank mad, / Or vvring my face vvith mimick action; / Stampe, curſe, vveepe, rage, & then my boſome ſtrike?”
“[W]hen he [a dog] fauneth vpon a man he vvringeth his ſk[i]nne in the forehead.”
- transitiveTo twist or wind (something) into coils; to coil.
- transitiveOf a thing (such as footwear): to pinch or press (a person or part of their body), causing pain.
“Myselfe can tell best where my shooe doth wring mee.”
“[T]he muſicke likes me not, and I haue a ſhooe vvrings me to'th heart; beſides I haue a vvomans reaſon, I vvill not daunce, becauſe I vvill not daunce: […]”
“Is this not a goodly ſhooe? is it not finely made? and is it not nevve? yet I dare ſaye there is neuer a one of you can tell vvhere it vvringeth me.”
- British, also, archaic, dialectal, figurativelyTo cause (someone or something) physical harm, injury, or pain; specifically, by applying pressure or by twisting; to harm, to hurt, to injure.
“A Lorde God, howe the gowte wryngeth me by the too!”
“I preethe Tom beat Cuts ſaddle; put a fevv flockes in the point, poor iade is vvroong in the vvithers, out of all ceſſe.”
“Then good Euphues wring not a horſe on the withers, with a falſe ſaddle, neither imagin what I am by thy thoughts, but mine own doings: […]”
- figuratively, transitiveTo cause (tears) to come out from a person or their eyes.
“And art thou come, Horatio from the deapth, / To aske for iuſtice in this vpper earth? / To tell thy father thou art vnreuengde, / To vvring more teares from Iſabellas eyes: / VVhoſe lights are dim'd ”
“The gripe of chaunce is vveake, to vvring a teare, / From him that knovves vvhat fortitude ſhould beare.”
“[S]hame upon thee, / It vvrings the Tears from Grillon's Iron Heart, / And melts me to a Babe.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo cause distress or pain to (a person or their heart, soul, etc.); to distress, to torment.
“And if he had not too much cheriſh’d his natural conſtitution, and propenſity; and been too much griev’d, and wrung by an uneaſy and ſtreight Fortune; he would have been an excellent Man of buſineſs, ”
“Oh Portius, didſt thou taſte but half the Griefs / That wring my Soul, thou cou’dſt not talk thus coldly, […]”
“[T]hough he has wrung my heart, for I am ſick almoſt to fainting, very ſick, my fellow priſoner, yet that ſhall never inſpire me with vengeance.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo obtain (something) from or out of a person or thing by extortion or other force.
“The police said they would wring the truth out of that criminal.”
“No Harry, Harry, ’tis no Land of thine; / Thy place is fill’d, thy Scepter vvrung from thee, […]”
“[I]f I could vvring ought from my ſelfe, not vnvvorthie of a iudicious Reader; […]”
- figuratively, transitiveTo use effort to draw (a response, words, etc.) from or out of someone; to generate (something) as a response.
“O noble ſir! / Your ouer kindneſſe doth vvring teares from me, […]”
“My buſie heart ſhall ſpin it all my dayes: / And vvhen it ſtops for vvant of ſtore, / Then vvill I vvring it vvith a ſigh or grone, / That thou mayſt yet have more.”
“[T]hirty ſpies, / VVho threatning cruel death conſtrain'd the bride / To vvring from me and tell to them my ſecret, / That ſolv'd the riddle vvhich I had propos'd.”
- figuratively, obsolete, transitiveTo afflict or oppress (someone) to enforce compliance; to extort.
“VVho can be bound by any ſolemne Vovv[…]
To vvring the VViddovv from her cuſtom’d right,
And have no other reaſon for this vvrong,
But that he vvas bound by a ſolemne Oath?”
“[T]he Merchant aduenturers haue beene often vvronged and vvringed to the quicke, […]”
“Time wasted is Exiſtence, us'd is Life.
And bare Exiſtence, Man, to live ordain’d, / Wrings, and oppreſſes with enormous Weight.”
- figuratively, obsolete, transitiveTo cause (someone) to do something or to think a certain way.
“For men be ſo parciall alway to theim ſelfe, that our hart euer thinketh the iudgement wrong, that wringeth vs to the worſe.”
- figuratively, obsolete, transitiveTo change (something) into another thing.
“As the wines which flow from the first treading of the grape are sweeter and better than those forced out by the press, which gives them the roughness of the husk and the stone, so are those doctrines”
- figuratively, obsolete, transitiveTo give (teachings, words, etc.) an incorrect meaning; to twist, to wrest.
“Lord, how dare these men thus wring the scriptures?”
“Or elſe they vvould ſtraine us out a certaine figurative Prelat, by vvringing the collective allegory of thoſe ſeven Angels into ſeven ſingle Rochets.”
- figuratively, obsolete, reflexive, transitiveTo put (oneself) in a position by cunning or subtle means; to insinuate.
“Drudges, that haue no extraordinarie giftes of bodie nor of minde, filche themselues into some noble-mans seruice, either by bribes or by flatterie, and, when they are there, they so labour it with ca”
“VVe vvring our ſelues into this vvretched vvorld, / To pule, and vveepe, exclaime, to curſe and raile, / To fret, and ban the fates, to ſtrike the earth / As I doe novv.”
- transitiveTo slide (two ultraflat surfaces) together such that their faces bond.
“For a given set of blocks with lengths in multiples of thousandths the lengths may be so selected as to make it possible, by combining different blocks in wringing contact end to end, to form a series”
“The number of optical wringing procedures performed for each gauge block was five, and the number of measurements for each wringing procedure was eleven.”
“The pack experiment method to evaluate phase correction is valuable in that the differences associated with wringing two different materials and/or surface finishes between the gauge blocks and the pl”
- intransitiveTo be engaged in clasping and twisting (especially the hands), or exerting pressure.
“Go wash well, saith Sommer, with sunne I shall drie, / go wring well, saith Winter, with winde so shall I.”
“[…] Mr. VVet-eyes vvent vvith hands vvringing together.”
“jacopo foscari. They will not banish me again?—No—no, / Let them wring on; I am strong yet. / guard. Confess, / And the rack will be spared you.”
- intransitiveTo twist the body in or as if in pain; to writhe.
“No, no, tis all mens office to ſpeake patience / To thoſe that vvring vnder the loade of ſorrovv […]”
“Bel[arius]. He vvrings at ſome diſtreſſe. / Gui[derius]. VVould I could free't.”
“Oh lord how his feat feete and handes he wrang, / Beſeeching his great god, that day to guide him, / And from his mortall ennemie to deuide him: […]”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo contend, to struggle; also, to strive, to toil.
“Thus chaunce hath (by exchaunge) the flie ſo trapt, / That ſodainly he loſt his libertee: / The more he wrange, the faſter was he wrapt [in the spider's web] / And all to thencreaſe of his ieoberdee, ”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo experience distress, pain, punishment, etc.
“[A]ll Ambaſſadours / (You knovv) haue chiefly theſe inſtructions; / […] / [T]o obſerue the countenances and ſpirites, / Of ſuch as are impatient of reſt; / And vvring beneath, ſome priuate diſcontent:”
- intransitiveOf a lode: to be depleted of ore; to peter or peter out.
- intransitive, obsoleteTo make a way out with difficulty.
- also, figurativelyA powerful squeezing or twisting action.
“I grasped his hand and gave it a grateful wring.”
“The VVring by the hand, and the Banquet is ours.”
“And hauing clipt them vvith pretence of loue, / Haue I not cruſht them vvith a cruell vvring?”
- datedFollowed by down: the product of wringing, such as cider or wine.
“She had just got off her mare to look at the last wring-down of cider for the year; […]”
- obsoleteA sharp physical pain, especially in the abdomen; also, mental pain or distress.
“Hens dung ſvvallovved [by a horse] by hap, bringeth frets and vvrings in the bellie: […]”
“[T]here vvas brought unto him an horſe named Babylonius, vvhich happening to be ſore vexed vvith a ſuddaine gripe or vvring in his belly, fell dovvne, and vvhiles hee vvas not able to endure the paine”
“When we have good dayes we slight them, when they are gone, we sinke under the wring of sorrow, for their losse; and want teacheth vs the worth of things more truely: and it is a true saying, Blessing”
- archaicA device for compressing or pressing, especially for making cheese, cider from apples, or wine from grapes.
“If you boil Cider eſpecial care muſt be had to put it into the furnace immediately from the vvring; othervviſe, if it be let ſtand in Vats, or veſſels, tvvo or three days after the preſſure, the beſt ”
“In order to avoid a great deal of trouble, and to perform the work more effectually, by diveſting the nevv made Cyder of vvhat pummice and other impurities remain; after ſtraining it through a hair ſi”
“Take any quantity of cider that is old, strong, harsh, or of an inferior quality, and add to it the same quantity of cider from the wring, or press; rouse it up well, and fix it in a warm place, or in”
Formswrings(present, singular, third-person) · wringing(participle, present) · wrung(participle, past) · wrung(past) · wrang(archaic, dialectal, participle, past) · wrang(archaic, dialectal, past) · wringed(participle, past, rare) · wringed(past, rare) · wring(infinitive) · wring(first-person, present, singular) · wringed(first-person, past, singular) · wring(present, second-person, singular) · wringest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · wringed(past, second-person, singular) · wringedst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · wringeth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · wringed(past, singular, third-person) · wring(plural, present) · wringed(past, plural) · wring(present, subjunctive)