wrench

English

Alternative forms

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

Pronunciation

A double-sided wrench.

A pipe/adjustable wrench.

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

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

Etymology 1

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

Noun

wrench (plural wrenches)

1. A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug.
   • 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.
3. (obsolete) A trick or artifice.
4. (obsolete) Deceit; guile; treachery.
5. (obsolete) A turn at an acute angle.
6. (archaic) A winch or windlass.
7. (obsolete) A screw.
8. A distorting change from the original meaning.
9. (US) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes; a spanner.

   Synonym: (UK, Australia, New Zealand) spanner

10. (UK) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.
11. A violent emotional change caused by separation.
12. (physics) In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body.
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 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.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

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

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To pull or twist violently.

   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.

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

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

   The plumber wrenched the pipes until they came loose.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To violently move in a turn or writhe.
8. (transitive, obsolete) To tighten with or as if with a winch.
   • 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.
10. (intransitive, fencing, obsolete) To disarm an opponent by whirling his or her blade away.

Translations

References

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

Further reading

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

Middle English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wrɛnt͡ʃ/, /wrɛnk/

Noun

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 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.

Related terms

• wrenchen

Descendants

• English: wrench
• Middle Scots: wrenk, wrink

References

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