wrest
verb (used with object)
to twist or turn; pull, jerk, or force by a violent twist.
were wresting
-
past progressiveof wrest.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Others were wresting shovels from the workers’ hands and digging dirt back into the holes.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2019
They labored with the conviction that they were wresting the soul from objects, in order to transfer it to the painted silk.
From Chinese Painters A Critical Study by Frances Seaver
New tribes of Turks seem to have poured down, and were wresting Sogdiana from the race of Seljuk, as the Seljukians had wrested it from the Gaznevides.
From Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3) The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive Christianity by John Henry Newman
While the English armies, under the direction of Pitt, were wresting from the French nearly all their possessions in America, Victories of Clive in India.
From A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon For the Use of Schools and Colleges by John Lord
While the Turks were assailing them on the south, and the Russians were wresting from them opulent and populous provinces on the north, Charles Gustavus of Sweden, was crossing her eastern frontiers with invading hosts.
From The Empire of Russia by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
