WRITHE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Writhe

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/rɪθ/ Listen

verb

Writhe v. t. (past writhed; past part. writhed, obs. or poetic writhen; pres. part. writhing)

To twist; to turn; now, usually, to twist or turn so as to distort; to wring. "With writhing (turning) of a pin." "Then Satan first knew pain, And writhed him to and fro." "Her mouth she writhed, her forehead taught to frown." "His battle-writhen arms, and mighty hands."

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."

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."

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."

See images of 'Writhe'

Etymology of 'Writhe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Writhe" Quotes from Famous Books

... sort of beings, don't you believe there's only one of them. There are barrels of 'em in every depot, that hang on and writhe when their time comes to go, and they say, 'I'm not going,' and they don't go, and they never succeed in driving them as far ...

— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse

... "When the Catholics writhe under this wrong, let them turn their eyes to the history of Catholic countries, and remember that, while the Catholic Church was stripped of her endowments and doomed to political degradation by Protestant persecutors in Ireland, ...

— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... "Kermesse" in the open air, racy and healthy, but a nocturnal boulevard-jollification, a "Mardi-gras" composed of lean and haggard scapegraces.—In the great nave of the Cathedral, "the dancers, almost naked, with bare necks and breasts, and stockings down at the heel," writhe and stamp, "howling the carmagnole." In the side chapels, which are "shut off by high tapestries, prostitutes with shrill voices" pursue their avocation.[3222]—To descend to this low level so barefacedly, to ...

— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... He would writhe and scream, babble and plead and sob. Perhaps there have been men who have endured torture with dignity, but Jimmie was not one of these. Jimmie was abject, Jimmie was frantic; he did anything, everything ...

— Jimmie Higgins • Upton Sinclair

... he strive to cover up his faithlessness. But he hath been untrue to thee in this—that he shares a thought with the witch when his whole mind should be full of thee. Bide thy time till he emerges from the spell, then make him writhe. Meantime, save thy tears. Never was a ...

— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

More quotes...