wring
Americanverb (used with object)
-
wrings,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrung,
past participle, past
-
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
-
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
-
are wringingprogressive
-
is wringingprogressive
-
have been wringingperfect progressive
-
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:
Some ransomware negotiators are using AI to help wring a better deal from hackers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
If you’ve ever read anything by biographer Robert Caro, you get the feeling that he could wring 100 pages out of what he had for breakfast.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Noticing that the outdoor space got just enough light to wring out some tomatoes, we headed to the nursery to top off our nest.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 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
A large store of proteins and sugars must be present to mop up the poison and wring it from the body.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Every two years the commentariat wrings its hands about a nasty attack ad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Unfortunately, the underwhelming revelations don’t elicit the tears Kore-eda regularly wrings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
As she wrings a wet cloth from a bucket of water in the living room and starts by wiping down the tables and chairs, she considers her latest ploy to save money.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025
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 wrings the water out of the shirt.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
We wrung it out pretty hard, just to be sure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Emery has wrung everything out of his players.
From BBC ● May 7, 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
The speculative leverage has been wrung out of this market for months.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 30, 2025
I even wrung my hands a little, every bit the distraught student.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Then we can make more Oppenheimer comparisons when he winds up pacing the frontiers, wringing his hands and muttering the Bhagavad Gita about what he’s unleashed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
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
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
That was followed a heavy, awkward ball to Mohammad Siraj that left Siraj walking off wringing his hand in pain after gloving it behind to Jamie Smith.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025
Every time he passed he would stop and laugh at me, I’d wake up wringing wet with sweat and having an upside-down fit.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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