wring
Americanverb (used with object)
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wrings,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrung,
past participle, past
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wringing
present participle
-
to twist forcibly.
He wrung the chicken's neck.
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to twist and compress, or compress without twisting, in order to force out water or other liquid (often followed byout ).
to wring clothes.
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to extract or expel by twisting or compression (usually followed by out orfrom ).
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to affect painfully by or as if by some contorting or compressing action.
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to clasp tightly with or without twisting.
to wring one's hands in pain.
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to force (usually followed byoff ) by twisting.
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to extract or get by forceful effort or means (often followed byout ).
verb (used without object)
-
wrings,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrung,
past participle, past
-
wringing
present participle
-
to perform the action of wringing something.
-
to writhe, as in anguish.
noun
verb
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(often foll by out) to twist and compress to squeeze (a liquid) from (cloth, etc)
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(tr) to twist forcibly
wring its neck
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(tr) to clasp and twist (one's hands), esp in anguish
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(tr) to distress
wring one's heart
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(tr) to grip (someone's hand) vigorously in greeting
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(tr) to obtain by or as if by forceful means
wring information out of
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(intr) to writhe with or as if with pain
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soaking; drenched
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wringsimple
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wringssimple
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have wrungperfect
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has wrungperfect
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am wringingprogressive
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are wringingprogressive
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is wringingprogressive
-
have been wringingperfect progressive
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has been wringingperfect progressive
Past
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wrungsimple
-
had wrungperfect
-
was wringingprogressive
-
were wringingprogressive
-
had been wringingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wring
before 900; Middle English wringen, Old English wringan; cognate with German ringen to wrestle
Explanation
To wring something is to twist or squeeze it, usually out of its original shape. If you annoy someone enough, they might threaten to wring your neck. If you do laundry by hand, then you most likely wring out your shirts to get rid of excess water before hanging them out to dry. You can also wring out someone's hair after washing it. As you can tell, the word often has to do with getting liquids out of something. You might wring tears out of a person's eyes if you tell him the sad story of the day you lost your puppy.
Vocabulary lists containing wring
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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List 14
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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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.
See Examples For:
“Out of the Further” is hardly the first movie to wring terror from a trip to the dentist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Historically it has used its heft to wring the lowest prices out of suppliers, playing them off each other and leaving them little profit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
He has also mocked allies uneasy about the widening conflict, referring to those who "wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force."
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
That hasn’t happened since World War II. It took a famously gut-wrenching recession to wring out the last bout of high inflation from the economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 14, 2026
I wring my fingers, put on a long face.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
Like Detectorists before it, this is a series that wrings emotion from the commonplace and everyday – only this time, the treasure Crook has buried is altogether more peculiar.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
The book is structured around Prefontaine’s biggest races, which Mr. O’Meara skillfully wrings for all their drama.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2025
The article’s author, Aaron Sibarium, wrings his hands over the fact that UCLA’s ranking in “research” has fallen to 18th from sixth place in just the first three years after Lucero’s arrival.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2024
Precipitation across the region will taper off Wednesday morning as Mother Nature wrings out the last of scattered showers over the Cascades.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023
She says nothing as she wrings out the cloth and holds it in the air to cool somewhat.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Emery has wrung everything out of his players.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
Guthrie has been seen in a couple of Instagram videos since then looking exhausted and emotionally wrung out as she and her siblings try to communicate with whoever has their mother.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026
There was widespread exuberance in the gold market prior to its plunge, and only a small part of that exuberance has been wrung out of the market.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
All of these jornaleros knew each other, maybe not by their real names, but by nicknames, usually wrung from the place they had lived.
From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2026
She gripped the dishcloth against her midriff and wrung it absently, her knuckles white.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
The “Obsession” score is an ingenious showcase of decay and reinvention, taking day-spa keyboard swells and wringing them out beyond recognition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Earnings Gold: Big tech companies are starting to strike gold with AI, but investors are still wringing their hands over the multibillion-dollar bets on data centers and chips.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
There were also comments from the US side about their UK counterparts "wringing their hands" about information over Andrew.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
You’ll want to get caught up ahead of next week’s twist—and by “twist,” I don’t mean a surprise but rather a wringing, in this case of a company by its shareholders.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025
“I’m sorry about this,” she told Ixtali, who was standing on the riverbank wringing the water out of her dress.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
