What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Wrest vs Dig - What's the difference?

wrest | dig | Related terms |

Wrest is a related term of dig.


As nouns the difference between wrest and dig

is that wrest is the act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion while dig is ditch, dyke.

As a verb wrest

is to pull or twist violently.

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

    *

    dig

    English

    (wikipedia dig)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) , from (etyl) (m), itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from (etyl) (m)). More at ditch, dike.

    Verb

  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.}}
  • (label) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up .
  • (label) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
  • To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
  • (label) To investigate, to research, often followed by out'' or ''up .
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
  • To thrust; to poke.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • You should have seen children dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
    Derived terms
    * dig in * dig into * dig over * dig out * dig up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An archeological investigation.
  • (US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
  • A thrust; a poke.
    • He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.
    • Synonyms
    * (archaeological investigation) excavation

    Etymology 2

    From (African American Vernacular English); due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is .Random House Unabridged, 2001 Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into'').eg: OED, "dig", from ME vt ''diggen

    Verb

  • (slang) To understand or show interest in.
    • You dig ?
  • (slang) To appreciate, or like.
    • Baby, I dig you.

    References

    Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs English three-letter words ----