Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Writhe

Writhe (rīt͟h), v. t. [imp. Writhed; p. p. Writhed, Obs. or Poetic Writhen; p. pr. & vb. n. Writhing.] [OE. writhen, AS. wrīðan to twist; akin to OHG. rīdan, Icel. rīða, Sw. vrida, Dan. vride. Cf. Wreathe, Wrest, Wroth.]

1. To twist; to turn; now, usually, to twist or turn so as to distort; to wring. "With writhing [turning] of a pin." Chaucer.

Then Satan first knew pain, And writhed him to and fro. Milton.

Her mouth she writhed, her forehead taught to frown. Dryden.

His battle-writhen arms, and mighty hands. Tennyson.

2. To wrest; to distort; to pervert.

The reason which he yieldeth showeth the least part of his meaning to be that whereunto his words are writhed. Hooker.

3. To extort; to wring; to wrest. [R.]

The nobility hesitated not to follow the example of their sovereign in writhing money from them by every species of oppression. Sir W. Scott.

Writhe, v. i. To twist or contort the body; to be distorted; as, to writhe with agony. Also used figuratively.

After every attempt, he felt that he had failed, and writhed with shame and vexation. Macaulay.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.