wrench

wrench vb Wrench, wrest, wring can all basically mean to turn or twist forcibly, but they tend to vary widely in the implied purpose or result of the action.

Wrench denotes a twisting or turning with considerable force, often with an abrupt tug or yank, so that the thing affected is twisted, distorted, or forced out of position; it may stress the violence of exertion in pulling or yanking (carelessly wrenching the pipe until it bent)

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a wrenching effect on the basic structural line— Sidney Hyman

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jerked and wrenched savagely at his bridle, stopping the hard-breathing animal with a furious pull near the colonel— Crane

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Wrest com-monly implies a twisting or wrenching, sometimes with crude violence, sometimes with continuing deftness and dexterity, from another's possession into one's own (wrested the knife from his attacker)

The term is common in extended use in which it implies a seizing, usurping, capturing, or extorting by such means (through the efforts of bold and ambitious men who wrest the power from the lords— Thilly)

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while one group of Mississippi valley pioneers advanced into the Southwest to wrest Texas from its Mexican owners— Billington

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when we could wrest the initiative from our enemies— Roosevelt

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Wring applies basically to a compressive twisting together, often to express or extract

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wring out wet clothes

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but in its extended use often implies a forcing or extorting (as by urgent demands or threats)

that suggests a physical wringing (wring a confession from a suspect)

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more farm output, both of foodstuffs and raw materials, must be wrung from the hard-pressed peasants— Lieberman

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wringing more blackmail from this unwarlike nation— Forester

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Analogous words: twist, bend (see CURVE): *force, compel, coerce, constrain: strain, sprain (see under STRAIN n)