wrench
UK/ˈɹɛnt͡ʃ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈɹent͡ʃ/
wrench noun: a movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug.
Noun
wrench (plural wrenches)
- A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug.
- With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC
- It was difficult indeed for Max to disengage himself from the effusive Spinola's affection without a wrench.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- An injury caused by a violent twisting or pulling of a limb; strain, sprain.
- A trick or artifice.
- Deceit; guile; treachery.
- A turn at an acute angle.
- A winch or windlass.
- A screw.
- A distorting change from the original meaning.
- A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes.
- Synonyms:
- spanner
- An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.
- A violent emotional change caused by separation.
- In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body.
- means; contrivance
- 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 peace1622, 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...
- 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.
Verb
wrench (third-person singular simple present wrenches, present participle wrenching, simple past and past participle wrenched)
- To pull or twist violently.
- With a surge of adrenaline, she wrenched the car door off and pulled out the injured man.
- To injure (a joint) by pulling or twisting.
- Be careful not to wrench your ankle walking along those loose stones!
- To distort the original meaning of; to misrepresent.
- To rack with pain; to make hurt or distressed.
- And what actinic, mind-wrenching form could the countermeme take? How could human hands assemble something so devastatingly powerful and hold it steady; what human mind could wield it without exploding from the inside out?2019 December 9, qntm, “Wild Light”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 191
- To deprive by means of a violent pull or twist.
- To use a wrench; to twist with a wrench.
- The plumber wrenched the pipes until they came loose.
- To violently move in a turn or writhe.
- To tighten with or as if with a winch.
- [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.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...
- To thrust (a weapon) in a twisting motion.
- To disarm an opponent by whirling their blade away.
Proper noun capitalized: Wrench
Wrench (plural Wrenches)
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
wrench meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
wrench in Hindi
- wrench, spanner
- रिंच riñc
wrench in Tamil
- திருகாணிச்சாவி, முறுக்கல், முறுக்கலி, குறடு, கவ்வித் திருகி, கைக்குறடு
wrench in Urdu
- اینٹھن, موچ, پانا, مروڑنا, زبردستی کرنا
wrench in Telugu
- a wrench
- మరచుట్టు maracuṭṭu
More languagesFewer languages
- wrench in Malayalam
- വളച്ചൊടിക്കൽ, തീവ്രവേദന
- wrench in Kannada
- ರೆಂಚ್
- wrench in Gujarati
- રેંચ
- wrench in Tagalog
- birador
- wrench in Arabic
- مِفْتَاحُ رَبْط miftāḥu rabṭ
- wrench in Indonesian
- kungris, kunci inggris
- wrench in Thai
- ประแจ bprà-jɛɛ
Examples of wrench in a sentence
- A monolithic chunk of titanium with facets for cutting, wrenching, and prying.
- She broke into a smile, wrenching herself away from our head physician.
- Open the jaws of the wrench and wide as possible.
Synonyms of wrench
Forms of wrench
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wrenches |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wrenche |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wrinche |
| alternative form (obsolete) | wringe |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wrenches |
| present participle | wrenching |
| past participle | wrenched |
| past | wrenched |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Wrenches |
Origin of wrench
From Middle English wrench, from Old English wrenċ, from Proto-Germanic *wrankiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wreng- (“to turn”). Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).
From Middle English wrenchen, from Old English wrenċan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrankijan, from Proto-Germanic *wrankijaną. Compare German renken.
From wrench, in the sense of trick, artifice, deceit, thus a nickname for a sly and wily person.
Words formed from wrench
- adjustable wrench
- Allen wrench
- alligator wrench
- bed wrench
- bicycle wrench
- crescent wrench
- dog bone wrench
- flare-nut wrench
- flare nut wrench
- hex head wrench
- hook wrench
- key wrench
- monkey-wrench
- monkey wrench
- monkeywrench
- nipple wrench
- nut wrench
- pipe wrench
- plumber wrench
- ratchet wrench
- ring wrench
- screw wrench
- smoke wrench
- socket wrench
- spanner wrench
- spider wrench
- spoke wrench
- Stillson wrench
- Swedish wrench
- tension wrench
- throw a monkey wrench in the works
- throw a monkey wrench into the works
- throw a wrench in
- throw a wrench in the gears
- throw a wrench in the works
- throw a wrench into the works
- torque wrench
- torsion wrench
- tube wrench
- tuning wrench
- wrench fault
- wrench hammer
- wrench in the works
- wrenchman
- wrench react
Phrases with wrench
- wrench hammers
- threw a wrench in
- thrown a wrench in
- throws a wrench in
- throwing a wrench in
- left-handed monkey wrench
- monkey wrench in the works
- threw a wrench in the gears
- threw a wrench in the works
- thrown a wrench in the gears
- thrown a wrench in the works
- throws a wrench in the gears
15 more phrasesFewer phrases
- throws a wrench in the works
- threw a wrench into the works
- throwing a wrench in the gears
- throwing a wrench in the works
- thrown a wrench into the works
- throws a wrench into the works
- throwing a wrench into the works
- threw a monkey wrench in the works
- thrown a monkey wrench in the works
- throws a monkey wrench in the works
- threw a monkey wrench into the works
- throwing a monkey wrench in the works
- thrown a monkey wrench into the works
- throws a monkey wrench into the works
- throwing a monkey wrench into the works
Words that rhyme with wrench
11 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about wrench
- What does wrench mean?
- Wrench means a movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug.
- What is wrench in Hindi?
- Wrench in Hindi is रिंच (riñc). See Wrench meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is wrench?
- Wrench can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wrench?
- Wrench is pronounced /ˈɹɛnt͡ʃ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wrench?
- The plural of wrench is wrenches.
Words near wrench in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wrench (page history and authors); Wrench (page history and authors); रिंच (Hindi) (page history and authors); wrench (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wrench (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); మరచుట్టు (Telugu) (page history and authors); wrench (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wrench (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wrench (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-wrench.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wrench.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wrench. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.