Library / English Dictionary

WRENCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hand tool that is used to hold or twist a nut or bolt

Synonyms:

spanner; wrench

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("wrench" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Meronyms (parts of "wrench"):

jaw (holding device consisting of one or both of the opposing parts of a tool that close to hold an object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wrench"):

torque wrench (a wrench that has a gauge that indicates the amount of torque being applied)

tap wrench (a wrench for turning a tap to create an internal screw thread)

sparkplug wrench (a wrench for removing or tightening spark plugs into the cylinder head of an internal combustion engine)

socket wrench (a wrench with a handle onto which sockets of different sizes can be fitted)

screw key (a wrench for turning a screw)

pin wrench (a wrench that has a projecting pin that fits into a socket on the object to be turned)

open-end wrench; tappet wrench (a wrench having parallel jaws at fixed separation (often on both ends of the handle))

lug wrench (a wrench with jaws that have projecting lugs to engage the object that is to be rotated)

hook spanner; hook wrench (a wrench with a hook that fits over a nut or bolt head)

dog wrench (a wrench with a handle shaped like a crank)

carriage wrench (a wrench designed for use with carriage bolts)

bulldog wrench (a wrench designed to provide a firm grip on something)

brace wrench (a wrench shaped like a brace (has a handle shaped like a crank) and a socket head)

box end wrench; box wrench (a wrench with a closed loop (a socket) that fits over a nut or bolt head)

alligator wrench (a wrench with a v-shaped jaw and serrations on one side (resembles the open jaws of an alligator))

Allen wrench (a wrench for Allen screws)

adjustable spanner; adjustable wrench (can be changed to different settings)

Derivation:

wrench (twist or pull violently or suddenly, especially so as to remove (something) from that to which it is attached or from where it originates)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A jerky pulling movement

Synonyms:

twist; wrench

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("wrench" is a kind of...):

motion; movement (a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something)

Derivation:

wrench (make a sudden twisting motion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A sharp strain on muscles or ligaments

Example:

he was sidelined with a hamstring pull

Synonyms:

pull; twist; wrench

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("wrench" is a kind of...):

harm; hurt; injury; trauma (any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wrench"):

sprain (a painful injury to a joint caused by a sudden wrenching of its ligaments)

Derivation:

wrench (twist suddenly so as to sprain)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Twist suddenly so as to sprain

Example:

I turned my ankle and couldn't walk for several days

Synonyms:

rick; sprain; turn; twist; wrench; wrick

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wrench" is one way to...):

injure; wound (cause injuries or bodily harm to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Did he wrench his foot?

Derivation:

wrench (a sharp strain on muscles or ligaments)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish

Example:

Wring one's hand

Synonyms:

wrench; wring

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "wrench" is one way to...):

distort; twine; twist (form into a spiral shape)

Verb group:

contort; deform; distort; wring (twist and press out of shape)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Twist or pull violently or suddenly, especially so as to remove (something) from that to which it is attached or from where it originates

Example:

a deep sigh was wrenched from his chest

Synonyms:

twist; wrench

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "wrench" is one way to...):

pull (apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

wrench (a hand tool that is used to hold or twist a nut or bolt)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make a sudden twisting motion

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "wrench" is one way to...):

squirm; twist; worm; wrestle; wriggle; writhe (to move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when struggling))

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

wrench (a jerky pulling movement)

Credits

 Context examples: 

My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This new moon will be in Aquarius, a sign that blends perfectly with your Gemini Sun, a big plus, but you do have to stay flexible because Uranus will be in hard angle to the Sun and new moon and is likely to throw a wrench into even the best-laid plans.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Then he felt torn asunder by a burst of flame hot through his being, and as he fell he knew the sharp pangs of life as it wrenches at the flesh to be free.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"I've sprained my ankle. That stupid high heel turned and gave me a sad wrench. It aches so, I can hardly stand, and I don't know how I'm ever going to get home," she said, rocking to and fro in pain.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

At length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings, and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me, and at the same time with a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He saw himself, stripped to the waist, with naked fists, fighting his great fight with Liverpool Red in the forecastle of the Susquehanna; and he saw the bloody deck of the John Rogers, that gray morning of attempted mutiny, the mate kicking in death- throes on the main-hatch, the revolver in the old man's hand spitting fire and smoke, the men with passion-wrenched faces, of brutes screaming vile blasphemies and falling about him—and then he returned to the central scene, calm and clean in the steadfast light, where Ruth sat and talked with him amid books and paintings; and he saw the grand piano upon which she would later play to him; and he heard the echoes of his own selected and correct words, But then, may I not be peculiarly constituted to write?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Ghost was being wrenched and torn to fragments.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But the man, shifting the club from right to left, coolly caught him by the under jaw, at the same time wrenching downward and backward.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

They hurled stones, wielded sticks and clubs and whips, administered slaps and clouts, and, when they touched him, were cunning to hurt with pinch and twist and wrench.

(White Fang, by Jack London)