wring

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wringen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wringan (“to press, strain, wring”),^[5][6][7] a strong verb with past wrang, plural wrungon, and participle wrungen.^[6][7] It comes from Proto-Germanic *wringaną.^[1][8] Its cognates are Old Saxon ūtwringan, Middle Dutch wringhen, Dutch wringen, Old High German ringan (“to twist; to struggle, wrestle”) and German ringen (“to wrestle”),^[6][5][9] and Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (wruggō, “snare”) and wrong represent other grades of the stem.^[6][8][10] Kroonen compares Lithuanian rangýti (“to wind, bend”) and takes the form back to Proto-Indo-European *uréngh-e-, though he allows that an older verb may have had a different final consonant.^[8] Barnhart gives the root as *wrenĝh-,^[5] and Etymonline, following Watkins, derives it from a nasalized variant of *wergh-, from *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To press or squeeze something so as to force out liquid, in Old English: Barnhart dates it to before 899,^[5] and the OED cites Wærferth's translation of Gregory's Dialogues and Ælfred's Boethius.^[6] Bosworth–Toller also has it for twisting, of pulling a man's ears in a medical text, and for pressing grapes in Genesis.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Pressing fruit and twisting a body are both Old English,^[6][7] and the two ideas have run together since.^[6] Wringing the hands, a sign of distress, dates from about 1200 in Etymonline^[11] and about 1290 in the OED,^[6] and wringing out a wet garment is recorded about 1300.^[6] Getting something by pressure, as in wringing money from the poor, is a Middle English development.^[12] The sense of tormenting a person or heart appears in the late 14th century, in Chaucer.^[11][6] His Merchant's Tale has an early form of the saying about knowing where the shoe wrings,^[6] and a tight shoe wringing the foot is attested from about 1449.^[6] Wringing wet is recorded by the middle of the 15th century.^[11] The agent noun wringer meant an extortioner before 1300, and the device for squeezing washing dates from 1799.^[5] Old English also had the noun wringe, a wine press,^[6][12] which lived on in Devon's cider-wring, and Hardy used it of a cheese press.^[6] In Middlesex and Kent to wring was to blister,^[13] and in American slang of 1875 to have a watch wrung was to have it stolen.^[14]

Timeline

• before 899 – to press or strain out liquid, as Old English wringan.^[5][6]
• Old English – to twist a limb or body; noun, a wine press.^[6][7]
• c. 1200 – to clasp and twist the hands in distress.^[11] The OED first quotes it about 1290.^[6]
• c. 1300 – to twist wet cloth so as to force out water.^[6][5]
• c. 1374 – to cause anguish to a person or heart.^[6][11]
• c. 1386 – of a shoe, figuratively, to pinch, in Chaucer.^[6]
• mid-15th century – wringing wet.^[11]
• before 1500 – noun, an act of wringing.^[6] Barnhart dates it to before 1425.^[5]
• c. 1500 – noun, a griping pain.^[6]
• 1806 – to force the features into a smile.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To twist and squeeze something wet so as to force out liquid, often with out: She wrung out the towel over the sink.^[15][3][6]
2. To force out liquid by twisting or squeezing: He wrung the last drops from the cloth.^[15][6]
3. To twist forcibly; to wrench: The farmer wrung the hen's neck.^[15][6]
4. To clasp and twist the hands, especially in anguish.^[15][6]
5. To obtain something by force or pressure: The union wrung a pay rise from the owners.^[15][3][12]
6. To cause distress to a person: The news wrung her heart.^[15][6]
7. To grip someone's hand firmly in greeting.^[15]
8. To writhe as if in pain.^[15]

Noun

1. An act or the process of wringing; a squeeze or clasp of the hand.^[15][3][6]
2. A press for cider or cheese.^[6][12]

Word family

• wringer
• outwring

Related words

• wrong
• wrangle
• wrench
• worry

Usage notes

The past tense and participle are wrung.^[12][3] An older past tense, wrang, survives in archaic and dialect use.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins