writhe

English

Etymology

Middle English writhen, from Old English wrīþan, from Proto-Germanic *wrīþanan 'to twist, turn' (cf. Old High German rīdan 'to turn', Old Norse ríða 'to wind'), from Proto-Indo-European (compare Lithuanian riēsti 'to unbend, wind, roll').

Pronunciation

• IPA: /raɪð/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪð

Verb

writhe (third-person singular simple present writhes, present participle writhing, simple past writhed or wrothe, past participle writhed or writhen)

1. To twist; to turn; now, usually, to twist or turn so as to distort; to wring.
2. To wrest; to distort; to pervert.
3. To extort; to wring; to wrest.
4. (intransitive) To twist or contort the body; to be distorted; as, to writhe with agony (also figuratively).
   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool”, BBC Sport:

     The game was engulfed in controversy when Rodwell appeared to win the ball cleanly in a midfield challenge with Suarez. The tackle drew an angry response from Liverpool's players- Lucas in particular as Suarez writhed in agony - but it was an obvious injustice when the England Under-21 midfielder was shown the red card.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Translations

to twist or contort the body

Dutch: kronkelen (nl), draaien (nl), vervormen (nl) Finnish: vääntelehtiä tuskissaan (to writhe in pain)

Russian: корчиться (ru) (kórčit's'a) impf.

Noun

writhe (plural writhes)

1. (knot theory) The number of negative crossings subtracted from the number of positive crossings in a knot

Anagrams

• whiter
• wither