Wreakless adjective Unrevengeful; weak. [ Obsolete]

Wreath noun ; plural Wreaths . [ Middle English wrethe , Anglo-Saxon wrǣð a twisted band, from wrīðan to twist. See Writhe .]

1. Something twisted, intertwined, or curled; as, a wreath of smoke; a wreath of flowers. "A wrethe of gold." Chaucer.

[ He] of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton wreath .

Milton.

2. A garland; a chaplet, esp. one given to a victor.

Conquest doth grant
He dear wreath to the Grecian combatant.

Chapman.

Far back in the ages,
The plow with wreaths was crowned.

Bryant.

3. (Her.) An appendage to the shield, placed above it, and supporting the crest (see Illust. of Crest ). It generally represents a twist of two cords of silk, one tinctured like the principal metal, the other like the principal color in the arms.

Wreath-shell noun (Zoology) A marine shell of the genus Turbo . See Turbo .

Wreathe transitive verb [ imperfect Wreathed ; past participle Wreathed ; Archaic Wreathen ; present participle & verbal noun Wreathing .] [ See Wreath , noun ] [ Written also wreath .]

1. To cause to revolve or writhe; to twist about; to turn. [ Obsolete]

And from so heavy sight his head did wreathe .

Spenser.

2. To twist; to convolve; to wind one about another; to entwine.

The nods and smiles of recognition into which this singular physiognomy was wreathed .

Sir W. Scott.

From his slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
Down dropped.

Milton.

3. To surround with anything twisted or convolved; to encircle; to infold.

Each wreathed in the other's arms.

Shak.

Dusk faces with withe silken turbants wreathed .

Milton.

And with thy winding ivy wreathes her lance.

Dryden.

4. To twine or twist about; to surround; to encircle.

In the flowers that wreathe the sparkling bowl,
Fell adders hiss.

Prior.

Wreathe intransitive verb To be intewoven or entwined; to twine together; as, a bower of wreathing trees. Dryden.

Wreathen adjective Twisted; made into a wreath. " Wreathen work of pure gold." Ex. xxviii. 22.

Wreathless adjective Destitute of a wreath.

Wreathy adjective Wreathed; twisted; curled; spiral; also, full of wreaths. " Wreathy spires, and cochleary turnings about." Sir T. Browne.

Wrecche noun A wretch. [ Obsolete]

Wrecche adjective Wretched. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Wreche noun Wreak. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Wreck transitive verb & noun See 2d & 3d Wreak .

Wreck noun [ Middle English wrak , Anglo-Saxon wræc exile, persecution, misery, from wrecan to drive out, punish; akin to Dutch wrak , adj., damaged, brittle, noun , a wreck, wraken to reject, throw off, Icelandic rek a thing drifted ashore, Swedish vrak refuse, a wreck, Danish vrag . See Wreak , transitive verb , and confer Wrack a marine plant.] [ Written also wrack .]

1. The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the force of winds or waves; shipwreck.

Hard and obstinate
As is a rock amidst the raging floods,
'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate,
Doth suffer wreck , both of herself and goods.

Spenser.

2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train.

The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Addison.

Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.

J. R. Green.

3. The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck .

4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured.

To the fair haven of my native home,
The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.

Cowper.

5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea. Bouvier.

Wreck transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Wrecked ; present participle & verbal noun Wrecking .]

1. To destroy, disable, or seriously damage, as a vessel, by driving it against the shore or on rocks, by causing it to become unseaworthy, to founder, or the like; to shipwreck.

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked .

Shak.

2. To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to destroy, as a railroad train.

3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.

Weak and envied, if they should conspire,
They wreck themselves.

Daniel.

Wreck intransitive verb
1. To suffer wreck or ruin. Milton.

2. To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or in plundering.

Wreck-master noun A person appointed by law to take charge of goods, etc., thrown on shore after a shipwreck.

Wreckage noun
1. The act of wrecking, or state of being wrecked.

2. That which has been wrecked; remains of a wreck.

Wrecker noun
1. One who causes a wreck, as by false lights, and the like.

2. One who searches fro, or works upon, the wrecks of vessels, etc. Specifically: (a) One who visits a wreck for the purpose of plunder. (b) One who is employed in saving property or lives from a wrecked vessel, or in saving the vessel; as, the wreckers of Key West.

3. A vessel employed by wreckers.

Wreckfish noun [ So called because it often comes in with wreckage .] (Zoology) A stone bass.

Wreckful adjective Causing wreck; involving ruin; destructive. "By wreckful wind." Spenser.

Wrecking adjective & noun from Wreck , v.

Wrecking car (Railway) , a car fitted up with apparatus and implements for removing the wreck occasioned by an accident, as by a collision. -- Wrecking pump , a pump especially adapted for pumping water from the hull of a wrecked vessel.

Wreke (rēk), Wreeke transitive verb See 2d Wreak . [ Obsolete]

Wren (rĕn) noun [ Middle English wrenne , Anglo-Saxon wrenna , wrænna , perhaps akin to wrǣne lascivious.]

1. (Zoology) Any one of numerous species of small singing birds belonging to Troglodytes and numerous allied of the family Troglodytidæ .

» Among the species best known are the house wren ( Troglodytes aëdon ) common in both Europe and America, and the American winter wren ( T. hiemalis ). See also Cactus wren , Marsh wren , and Rock wren , under Cactus , Marsh , and Rock .

2. (Zoology) Any one of numerous species of small singing birds more or less resembling the true wrens in size and habits.

» Among these are several species of European warblers; as, the reed wren (see Reed warbler (a) , under Reed ), the sedge wren (see Sedge warbler , under Sedge ), the willow wren (see Willow warbler , under Willow ), the golden-crested wren, and the ruby-crowned wren (see Kinglet ).

Ant wren , any one of numerous South American birds of the family Formicaridæ , allied to the ant thrushes. -- Blue wren , a small Australian singing bird ( Malurus cyaneus ), the male of which in the breeding season is bright blue. Called also superb warbler . -- Emu wren . See in the Vocabulary. -- Wren babbler , any one of numerous species of small timaline birds belonging to Alcippe , Stachyris , Timalia , and several allied genera. These birds are common in Southern Asia and the East Indies. -- Wren tit . See Ground wren , under Ground . -- Wren warbler , any one of several species of small Asiatic and African singing birds belonging to Prinia and allied genera. These birds are closely allied to the tailor birds, and build their nests in a similar manner. See also Pincpinc .

Wrench (rĕnch) noun [ Middle English wrench deceit, Anglo-Saxon wrenc deceit, a twisting; akin to German rank intrigue, crookedness, renken to bend, twist, and English wring . √144. See Wring , and confer Ranch , transitive verb ]

1. Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem. [ Obsolete]

His wily wrenches thou ne mayst not flee.

Chaucer.

2. A violent twist, or a pull with twisting.

He wringeth them such a wrench .

Skelton.

The injurious effect upon biographic literature of all such wrenches to the truth, is diffused everywhere.

De Quincey.

3. A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.

4. Means; contrivance. [ Obsolete] Bacon.

5. An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.

6. (Mech.) The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be equivalent to a wrench.

Carriage wrench , a wrench adapted for removing or tightening the nuts that confine the wheels on the axles, or for turning the other nuts or bolts of a carriage or wagon. -- Monkey wrench . See under Monkey . -- Wrench hammer , a wrench with the end shaped so as to admit of being used as a hammer.

Wrench transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Wrenched ; present participle & verbal noun Wrenching .] [ Middle English wrenchen , Anglo-Saxon wrencan to deceive, properly, to twist, from wrenc guile, deceit, a twisting. ............. See Wrench , noun ]

1. To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence.

Wrench his sword from him.

Shak.

Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched
With a woeful agony.

Coleridge.

2. To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert.

You wrenched your foot against a stone.

Swift.

Wrest transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Wrested ; present participle & verbal noun Wresting .] [ Middle English wresten , Anglo-Saxon wr...stan ; akin to wr...... a twisted band, and wrī...n to twist. See Writhe .]

1. To turn; to twist; esp., to twist or extort by violence; to pull of force away by, or as if by, violent wringing or twisting. "The secret wrested from me." Milton.

Our country's cause,
That drew our swords, now secret wrests them from our hand.

Addison.

They instantly wrested the government out of the hands of Hastings.

Macaulay.

2. To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort.

Wrest once the law to your authority.

Shak.

Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor.

Ex. xxiii. 6.

Their arts of wresting , corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text.

South.

3. To tune with a wrest, or key. [ Obsolete]

Wrest noun
1. The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion. Hooker.

2. Active or moving power. [ Obsolete] Spenser.

3. A key to tune a stringed instrument of music.

The minstrel . . . wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the wrest , or key, with which he tuned his harp.

Sir W. Scott.

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

Wrest pin (Piano Manuf.) , one of the pins around which the ends of the wires are wound in a piano. Knight. -- Wrest plank (Piano Manuf.) , the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.

Wrester noun One who wrests.

Wrestle intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Wrestled ; present participle & verbal noun Wrestling .] [ Middle English wrestlen , wrastlen , Anglo-Saxon wr...stlian , freq. of wr...stan to wrest; akin to OD. wrastelen to wrestle . See Wrest , transitive verb ]

1. To contend, by grappling with, and striving to trip or throw down, an opponent; as, they wrestled skillfully.

To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit, and he that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him well.

Shak.

Another, by a fall in wrestling , started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.

Wiseman.

2. Hence, to struggle; to strive earnestly; to contend.

Come, wrestle with thy affections.

Shak.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Eph. vi. 12.

Difficulties with which he had himself wrestled .

M. Arnold.

Wrestle transitive verb To wrestle with; to seek to throw down as in wrestling.

Wrestle noun A struggle between two persons to see which will throw the other down; a bout at wrestling; a wrestling match; a struggle.

Whom in a wrestle the giant catching aloft, with a terrible hug broke three of his ribs.

Milton.

Wrestler noun [ Anglo-Saxon wrǣstlere .] One who wrestles; one who is skillful in wrestling.

Wrestling noun Act of one who wrestles; specif., the sport consisting of the hand-to-hand combat between two unarmed contestants who seek to throw each other. The various styles of wrestling differ in their definition of a fall and in the governing rules. In Greco-Roman wrestling , tripping and taking hold of the legs are forbidden, and a fall is gained (that is, the bout is won), by the contestant who pins both his opponent's shoulders to the ground. In catch-as-catch-can wrestling , all holds are permitted except such as may be barred by mutual consent, and a fall is defined as in Greco-Roman style. Lancashire style wrestling is essentially the same as catch-as-catch- can . In Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling the contestants stand chest to chest, grasping each other around the body. The one first losing his hold, or touching the ground with any part of his body except his feet, loses the bout. If both fall to the ground at the same time, it is a dogfall , and must be wrestled over. In the Cornwall and Devon wrestling , the wrestlers complete in strong loose linen jackets, catching hold of the jacket, or anywhere above the waist. Two shoulders and one hip, or two hips and one shoulder, must touch the ground to constitute a fall, and if a man is thrown otherwise than on his back the contestants get upon their feet and the bout recommences.

Wretch noun [ Middle English wrecche , Anglo-Saxon wrecca , wræcca , an exile, a wretch, from wrecan to drive out, punish; properly, an exile, one driven out, akin to Anglo-Saxon wræc an exile, Old Saxon wrekkio a stranger, Old High German reccheo an exile. See Wreak , transitive verb ]

1. A miserable person; one profoundly unhappy. "The wretch that lies in woe." Shak.

Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?

Cowper.

2. One sunk in vice or degradation; a base, despicable person; a vile knave; as, a profligate wretch .

» Wretch is sometimes used by way of slight or ironical pity or contempt, and sometimes to express tenderness; as we say, poor thing . "Poor wretch was never frighted so." Drayton.

Wretched adjective
1. Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting. "To what wretched state reserved!" Milton.

O cruel! Death! to those you are more kind
Than to the wretched mortals left behind.

Waller.

2. Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable; as, a wretched poem; a wretched cabin.

3. Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked. [ Obsolete] " Wretched ungratefulness." Sir P. Sidney.

Nero reigned after this Claudius, of all men wretchedest , ready to all manner [ of] vices.

Capgrave.

Wretchedly adverb In a wretched manner; miserably; despicable.

Wretchedness noun
1. The quality or state of being wretched; utter misery. Sir W. Raleigh.

2. A wretched object; anything despicably. [ Obsolete]

Eat worms and such wretchedness .

Chaucer.

Wretchful adjective Wretched. [ Obsolete] Wyclif.

Wretchless adjective [ See Reckless .] Reckless; hence, disregarded. [ Obsolete] -- Wretch"less*ly , adverb [ Obsolete] -- Wretch"less*ness , noun [ Obsolete] Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Your deaf ears should listen
Unto the wretchless clamors of the poor.

J. Webster.

Wrey transitive verb See Wray . [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Wrie adjective & v. See Wry . [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Wrig intransitive verb To wriggle. [ Obsolete] Skelton.

Wriggle intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Wriggled ; present participle & verbal noun Wriggling .] [ Freq. of wrig , probably from Middle English wrikken to move to and fro; confer LG. wriggeln , Dutch wrikken , Swedish vricka , Danish vrikke .] To move the body to and fro with short, writhing motions, like a worm; to squirm; to twist uneasily or quickly about.

Both he and successors would often wriggle in their seats,
as long as the cushion lasted.

Swift.

Wriggle transitive verb To move with short, quick contortions; to move by twisting and squirming; like a worm.

Covetousness will wriggle itself out at a small hole.

Fuller.

Wriggling his body to recover
His seat, and cast his right leg over.

Hudibras.

Wriggle adjective Wriggling; frisky; pliant; flexible. [ Obsolete] "Their wriggle tails." Spenser.

Wriggle noun Act of wriggling; a short or quick writhing motion or contortion.

Wriggler noun One who, or that which, wriggles. Cowper.

Wright noun [ Middle English wrighte , writhe , Anglo-Saxon wyrtha , from wyrcean to work. √145. See Work .] One who is engaged in a mechanical or manufacturing business; an artificer; a workman; a manufacturer; a mechanic; esp., a worker in wood; -- now chiefly used in compounds, as in mill wright , wheel wright , etc.

He was a well good wright , a carpenter.

Chaucer.

Wrightine noun (Chemistry) A rare alkaloid found in the bark of an East Indian apocynaceous tree ( Wrightia antidysenterica ), and extracted as a bitter white crystalline substance. It was formerly used as a remedy for diarrhœa. Called also conessine , and neriine .