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Wrest vs Ferret - What's the difference?

wrest | ferret | Related terms |

In lang=en terms the difference between wrest and ferret

is that wrest is a key to tune a stringed instrument while ferret is a tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.

As verbs the difference between wrest and ferret

is that wrest is to pull or twist violently while ferret is to hunt game with ferrets.

As nouns the difference between wrest and ferret

is that wrest is the act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion while ferret is an often domesticated mammal rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.

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

    *

    ferret

    English

    (wikipedia ferret)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) furet, ferret, from (etyl) firet, furet, diminutive of (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An often domesticated mammal rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.
  • The (black-footed ferret), .
  • A diligent searcher.
    • Synonyms
    * (domesticated polecat) Mustela putorius furo

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hunt game with ferrets.
  • To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out .
  • * Shakespeare
    • Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • She ferreted in her bag; then held it up mouth downwards; then fumbled in her lap, all so vigorously that Charles Steele in the Panama hat suspended his paint-brush.

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) fioretto

    Noun

  • (dated) A tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.
  • * Charles Dickens, Bleak House
    • red tape and green ferret
    ----