wrench

• (15^th century): wrenche; (15^th century): wrinche; (16^th century): wringe

A double-sided wrench.

A pipe/adjustable wrench.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: rĕnch IPA^(key): /ɹɛnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

From Middle English wrench, from Old English wrenċ, from Proto-Germanic *wrankiz (“a turning, twisting”). Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).

wrench (plural wrenches)

1. A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug. [from 16th c.]
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

     With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.

2. An injury caused by a violent twisting or pulling of a limb; strain, sprain. [from 16th c.]
3. (obsolete) A trick or artifice. [from 8th c.]
4. (obsolete) Deceit; guile; treachery. [from 13th c.]
5. (obsolete) A turn at an acute angle. [from 16th c.]
6. (archaic) A winch or windlass. [from 16th c.]
7. (obsolete) A screw. [from 16th c.]
8. A distorting change from the original meaning. [from 17th c.]
9. (US) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes; a spanner. [from 18th c.]

   Synonym: (UK, Australia, New Zealand) spanner

10. (UK) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.
11. A violent emotional change caused by separation. [from 19th c.]
12. (physics) In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body. [from 19th c.]
13. (obsolete) means; contrivance
    • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

      But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost; but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain, as a quarrel for war; and that of Naples, as a wrench and mean for peace

14. In coursing, the act of bringing the hare round at less than a right angle, worth half a point in the recognised code of points for judging.

From Middle English wrenchen, from Old English wrenċan, from Proto-Germanic *wrankijaną. Compare German renken.

wrench (third-person singular simple present wrenches, present participle wrenching, simple past and past participle wrenched)

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently. [from 13th c.]

   With a surge of adrenaline, she wrenched the car door off and pulled out the injured man.

2. (transitive) To injure (a joint) by pulling or twisting. [from 16th c.]

   Be careful not to wrench your ankle walking along those loose stones!

3. (transitive) To distort the original meaning of; to misrepresent. [from 16th c.]
4. (transitive) To rack with pain; to be hurt or distressed. [from 18th c.]
5. (transitive) To deprive by means of a violent pull or twist. [from 18th c.]
6. (transitive) To use a wrench; to twist with a wrench. [from 19th c.]

   The plumber wrenched the pipes until they came loose.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To violently move in a turn or writhe. [11th-18th c.]
8. (transitive, obsolete) To tighten with or as if with a winch. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, pages 173–174:

     [S]end me that hag hither; she shall avouch what it was that she hath given to the wretch Dryfesdale, or the pilniewinks and thumbikins shall wrench it out of her finger-joints.

9. (transitive, obsolete) To thrust a weapon in a twisting motion. [16th c.]
10. (intransitive, fencing, obsolete) To disarm an opponent by whirling his or her blade away. [18th c.]

• “wrench, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• wrench on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Wrenches on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• wrenk, wrynk, wrynke
• wrænch, wrenc, wreinch (Early Middle English)

Inherited from Old English wrenċ, from Proto-West Germanic *wranki, from Proto-Germanic *wrankiz.

• IPA^(key): /wrɛnt͡ʃ/, /wrɛnk/

wrench (plural wrenches or wrenche)

1. A trick or artifice; a deceptive action.
   • a. 1250, Death’s wither-clench (IMEV 2070, Cotton MS. Caligula A. IX)‎, archived from the original on 2 May 2023, folio 246, recto; republished at London: British Library Digitised Manuscripts, c. 2015:

     Non^{[sic – meaning Mon]} mai longe liues ƿene:
     Ac ofte hi[m] lieð þe wrench.
     Feir ƿeð[er] turneð ofte i[n]to reine […]

     People may expect long lives,
     but a trick often betrays them;
     fair weather often turns into rain […]

2. Trickery, deception, guile.

• wrenchen

• English: wrench
• Middle Scots: wrenk, wrink

• “wrench, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.