wring
/ɹɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.75 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Often followed by out: to squeeze or twist (something moist) tightly so that liquid is forced out.
Transitive verb
verb
Often followed by out: to squeeze or twist (something moist) tightly so that liquid is forced out.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "I didn’t have a towel so I just wrung my hair dry."
- "[…] Protagenes portrai[e]d Venus vvith a ſponge ſprinkled with ſvvéete vvater, but if once ſhe vvrong it, it vvould droppe blood: […]"
- "O my belly ſeeths like a Porridge-pot, ſome cold water I ſhall boyle ouer elſe; my whole body is in a ſweat, that you may wring my ſhirt; feele here— […]"
- "[T]hat greater numbers of them [pores], […] are perforations that paſs quite through the Leather, may, not improbably, be ſhewn by the uſual Practice of Chymiſts, to purify Quick-ſilver by typing it up ſtrictly in a piece of kids or ſheeps Leather, and then wringing it hard to force it out; […]"
- "[W]e contrived to satisfy the cravings of thirst by suffering the shirts to become saturated, and then wringing them so as to let the grateful fluid trickle into our mouths."
- "[H]e had sometimes wrung a dirty dishcloth into a customer’s soup before taking it in, just to be revenged upon a member of the bourgeoisie."
Etymology
From Middle English wring, wringe, wringen, wryng, wrynge, wryngen, wryngyn, from Old English wringan (“to wring”), from Proto-Germanic *wringaną (“to squeeze, twist, wring”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wrenǵʰ- (“to squeeze, wring”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wring (“to wring”), Saterland Frisian wringe (“to wring”), Dutch wringen (“to wring; to wrest; to writhe”), German ringen (“to wrestle; to struggle; to wring”), wringen (“to wring”), Luxembourgish réngen (“to grapple, wrestle”); also Ancient Greek ῥίμφα (rhímpha, “fast, nimbly, rapidly”), Lithuanian rangýti (“to roll up; to curl, twist, wave”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *wrenǵʰ-, wring, wringan, *wringaną, wringe
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹɪŋ/
- British English: /ɹɪŋ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
wrings (present, singular)
wringing (participle, present)
wrung (participle, past)
wrung (past)
wrang (archaic, dialectal)
wringed (participle, past)
wringed (past, rare)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
wringed (first person, past)
wringest (archaic, present)
wringed (past, second person)