wrenching

Pluralwrenchings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of wrench.

   The mechanic was wrenching the seized nut free when his tool slipped.

   Wrenching the wheel hard to the left, she barely avoided the oncoming car.

   Note

   One spelling carries every sense of wrench. The -ing form can describe a mechanic twisting a seized nut, someone injuring a wrist, a writer distorting a meaning, or pain racking a person. After a form of be it makes the progressive (she was wrenching the door open). Without be, it works as a verbal noun that still takes a direct object, as in wrenching the wheel saved her.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The act of pulling or twisting something with sudden force, often hard enough to move or damage it.

   A sudden wrenching of the steering column left it hanging loose under the dash.

   The wrenching he gave the rusted lever finally snapped it off at the base.

   Similartwist, yank, jerk, tug, pull

   Note

   Here the -ing word has become a true noun, and the grammar shows it. It takes an article and an adjective, it uses of before the thing twisted (a sudden wrenching of the lever), and it forms a plural, wrenchings. Compare the verb form, which takes its object directly: wrenching the lever. If you can put a or the in front, you have the noun.

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