Our country's cause, That drew our swords, now
secret wrests them from our hand. --Addison.
They instantly wrested the government out of the
hands of Hastings. --Macaulay.
2. To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper
use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort.
Wrest once the law to your authority. --Shak.
Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor. --Ex.
xxiii. 6.
Their arts of wresting, corrupting, and false
interpreting the holy text. --South.
3. To tune with a wrest, or key. [Obs.]
2. Active or moving power. [Obs.] --Spenser.
3. A key to tune a stringed instrument of music.
The minstrel . . . wore round his neck a silver
chain, by which hung the wrest, or key, with which
he tuned his harp. --Sir W.
Scott.
4. A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the
buckets is determined.
{Wrest pin} (Piano Manuf.), one of the pins around which the
ends of the wires are wound in a piano. --Knight.
{Wrest plank} (Piano Manuf.), the part in which the wrest
pins are inserted.