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Distort vs Wrest - What's the difference?

distort | wrest | Synonyms |

Distort is a synonym of wrest.


In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between distort and wrest

is that distort is (obsolete) distorted; misshapen while wrest is (obsolete) active or motive power.

As verbs the difference between distort and wrest

is that distort is to bring something out of shape while wrest is to pull or twist violently.

As an adjective distort

is (obsolete) distorted; misshapen.

As a noun wrest is

the act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.

distort

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To bring something out of shape.
  • (ergative) To become misshapen.
  • To give a false or misleading account of
  • In their articles, journalists sometimes distort the truth.

    Derived terms

    * distorter

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) distorted; misshapen
  • * Spenser
  • Her face was ugly and her mouth distort .

    wrest

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To pull or twist violently.
  • To obtain by pulling or violent force.
  • He wrested the remote control from my grasp and changed the channel.
  • * Milton
  • Did not she / Of Timna first betray me, and reveal / The secret wrested from me
  • (figuratively) To seize.
  • * Macaulay
  • They instantly wrested the government out of the hands of Hastings.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 12
  • There was one of the tribe of Tarzan who questioned his authority, and that was Terkoz, the son of Tublat, but he so feared the keen knife and the deadly arrows of his new lord that he confined the manifestation of his objections to petty disobediences and irritating mannerisms; Tarzan knew, however, that he but waited his opportunity to wrest the kingship from him by some sudden stroke of treachery, and so he was ever on his guard against surprise.
  • (figuratively) To twist, pervert, distort.
  • * Bible, Exodus xxiii. 6
  • Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor.
  • * South
  • their arts of wresting , corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text
  • * 1597 , Shakespeare,
  • And, I beseech you,
    Wrest once the law to your authority;
    To do a great right do a little wrong,
    And curb this cruel devil of his will.
  • To tune with a wrest, or key.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
  • (Hooker)
  • (obsolete) Active or motive power.
  • (Spenser)
  • (music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • The minstrel wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the wrest , or key, with which he tuned his harp.
  • A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.
  • Derived terms

    * wrest pin * wrest plank (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

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