wringer

[ring-er]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR wringer ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person or thing that wrings.

an apparatus or machine for squeezing liquid out of anything wet, as two rollers through which an article of wet clothing may be squeezed.

a painful, difficult, or tiring experience; ordeal (usually preceded by through the): His child's illness really put him through the wringer.

Origin of wringer

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at wring, -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for wringer

query, investigation, inquiry, questioning, inquisition, inquest, poll, catechism, interrogation, examination, interrogatory, inquiring

Examples from the Web for wringer

Contemporary Examples of wringer

He degraded her and he really put her through the wringer, but she survived that and stayed with him anyway.
Adam Driver on Role-Play Sex with Lena Dunham on ‘Girls’ and Adam’s Stormy Relationship with Hannah
Marlow Stern
March 10, 2014
I was angry that good people were run through the wringer of a corrupt, unforgiving system.
Nuclear Sub Cheating Scandal
Christopher Brownfield
September 22, 2010
But then again, he would probably not want to go through the wringer a second time.
The White House's TSA Failure
Clive Irving
March 27, 2010

Historical Examples of wringer

Also, your garments are as wrinkled as though you'd been put through a wringer.
Frank Roscoe's Secret
Allen Chapman
Get a strong barrel and a pounder—such as used by washerwomen; also a wringer.
Hints on Dairying
T. D. Curtis
Never leave a wringer with the pressure on the rollers when not in use.
Mechanical Devices in the Home
Edith Louise Allen
Thus, the clothes are wrung as dry as in a wringer of the roller type.
Mechanical Devices in the Home
Edith Louise Allen
But close—say, that man's so close he puts every copper through the wringer.
Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm
Alice B. Emerson

British Dictionary definitions for wringer

wringer

noun

another name for mangle 2 (def. 1)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for wringer

"device for squeezing water from clothes," 1799, agent noun from wring. Figurative phrase to put (something) through the wringer first recorded 1942, American English.

Idioms and Phrases with wringer

wringer

see under put through (the wringer).