wrest

Meanings

Verb

• To pull or twist violently.
• To obtain by pulling or violent force.
• To seize.
• To distort, to pervert, to twist.
• To tune with a wrest, or key.

Noun

• The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
• A key to tune a stringed instrument.
• Active or motive power.
• ; a saw set.
• A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.
• 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.

Origin

• From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wrǣstan, from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną, (compare Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną, *wrīþaną, Old Norse reista), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ-, *wreyt-. See also writhe, wry.
• The noun is derived from the verb.
• Possibly a variant of wrist: see the quotation. Wrist is also derived from *wrīþaną, from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ-, *wreyt-.
• A misspelling of rest, probably influenced by wrest (etymology 1, verb and noun).