WRITHE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Writhe

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/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."

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Etymology of 'Writhe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Writhe" Quotes from Famous Books

... the boom went up the barge's mast, and the tightly corded roll of dark canvas began to struggle for liberty, and writhe and flap with throttling noises above our heads, and when Mr. Rowe wrestled with it and the driver helped him, and Fred and I tried to, and were all but swept overboard in consequence, whilst the barge-master encouraged himself by strange and savage sounds—and ...

— A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

... that the charge must be paid by senders. "Proprietors of journals," says the Quebec Chronicle, "find it hard enough at present to collect the simple subscription, without demanding postage in advance. People who writhe at present under the payment of their bare paper account, will find forwarding postage, in advance, an excruciating sacrifice." The 2 cents is no doubt primarily intended for soldiers' letters. The 3 cents pays the new single rate for postage; the 6 cents the charge on letters ...

— The Stamps of Canada • Bertram Poole

... of pleasure. The first fork is disentanglement from the sweetness of the world. The second fork is power over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion. The third fork is the healthy glow of one who steps ...

— A Voyage to Arcturus • David Lindsay

... murmur, to see the form of his cherished, but wretched wife, not only exposed to the rude gaze of a beastly tyrant, but he must unresistingly see the heavy cowhide descend upon her shrinking flesh, and her manacled limbs writhe in inexpressible torture, while her piteous cries for help ring through his ears unanswered. The wild throbbing of his heart must be suppressed, and his righteous indignation find no voice, in the presence of the human monster who ...

— Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman • Austin Steward

... strange shiverings, swarmings, crepitations; sounds of incessant, infinitely subtle urging, of agony and recoil. Sounds they were of the invisible things unborn, driven towards birth; sounds of the worm unborn, of things that creep and writhe towards dissolution. She knew what she heard and saw. She heard the stirring of the corruption that Life was; the young blades of corn were frightful to her, for in them was the push, the passion of the evil ...

— The Flaw in the Crystal • May Sinclair

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