Volume 2
A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
- Samuel Johnson
- Date:
- 1755
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
1155/1176
![si ,)a hefp tare. To Wreath, v. a. preterits wreathed; part. paff. wreathed, wreathen. [from the noun.] 1. To curl * to twid; to convolve. Longaville Did never fonnet for her fake compile* Nor never laid his wreathed arms athwart His loving bofom, to keep down his heart. About his neck A green and gilded (nake had wreath'd itfelf, Who, with her head, nimble in threats approach’d The opening of his mouth; but fuddenly, Seeing Orlando, it unlink’d itfelf. And with indented glides did flip away. Shah. As you like it. The beard of an oat is wreathed at the bottom, and one fmooth entire draw at the top : they take only the part that is wreathed, and cut off the other. Bacon. 2. It is here ufed for to writhe. Impatient of the wound, He rolls and wreaths his fhining body round ; T hen headlong (hoots beneath the daffnng tide. 3. To interweave; to entwine one in another. Two chains of pure gold of wreathen work (halt thou make them, and fallen the wreathen chains to the ouches. Ex xxviii. As fnakes breed in dunghills not fingly, but in knots ; fo in fuch bafe noifome hearts you (hall ever fee pride and ingrati¬ tude indivifibly wreathed and twilled together. South. Here, where the labourer’s hands have form’d a bow’r Of wreathing trees, in (inging wade an hour. Dryden. 4. To encircle as a garland. In the flow’rs that wreath the fparkling bowl. Fell adders hifs, and pois’nous ferpents rowl. Prior. 5. To encircle as with a garland. For thee (he feeds her hair, And with thy winding ivy wreathes her lance. Dryden. The foldier, from fuccefsful camps returning, With laurel wreath'd, and rich with hoftiie fpoil. Severs the bull to Mars. Prior. Wre'athy. adj. [from wreath ] Spiral; curled; twilled. near Paris, hath which agreeth Gay. Brown, wracke, Spenfer. That which is preferved at St. Dennis, wreathy fpires, and cochleary turnings about with the defeription of an unicorn’s horn in /Elian. Wreck, n.f. [ ppaecce, Saxon, a miferable perfon; Dutch, a (hip broken.] 1. Dedrudtion by being driven on rocks or (hallows at fea; deftruclion by fea. Fair be ye fure; but hard and obftinate, As is a rock amidll the raging floods; ’Gainft which a (hip. of fuccour defolate. Doth fuffer wreck both of herfelf and goods. Like thofe that fee their wreck Ev’n on the rocks of death; and yet they drain, That death may not them idly And t’ attend To their uncertain t2(k, but work to meet their end. Daniel. Think not that flying fame reports my fate; I prefent, I appear, and my own wreck relate. Dryden. 2. Diffolution by violence. Not only Paradife, In this commotion, but the darry cope Had gone to wreck, Milton's Paradife Lofl. 3. Ruin; deftruclion. Whether he was Combin’d with Norway, or did line the rebel With hidden help and vantage; or that with both He labour’d in his country’s wreck, I know not. Shakefp. 4. It is mifprinted here for wreak. He cry’d as raging feas are wont to roar, When wintry dorm his wrathful wreck doth threat. Spenfer. To Wreck, v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To dedroy by dalhing on rocks or fands. Have there been any more fuch tempeds, wherein fhe hath wretchedly been wrecked ? Spenfer on Ireland. A pilot’s thumb, JVreck'd as homeward he did come. Shakef. Macbeth. The coral found growing upon wrecked (hips and lod an¬ chors, that are daily dragged up out of the fea, demondrates that coral continues to be formed to this day. JVoodward. 2, To ruin. Weak and envy'd, if they (hould confpire. They wreck themfelves, and he hath his defire. Daniel. . 3. In the following paffages it is ignorantly ufed for wreak, in its different fenfes of revenge and execute. Eighty odd years of forrow have I feen, And each hour’s joy wreck'd with a week of teen. I faint! I die ! the goddefs cry’d : O cruel, could’d thou find none other To wreck thy fpleen on ? Parricide ! Like Nero, thou had (lain thy mother. To Wreck, v. n. To luffer wreck. With manlier objeds we .mud try • His conftancy, with fuch as have more (hew Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praifc, . Rocks whereon greateil men have often wreck'd. Wren. n. f [premia, Saxon ] Aimall bird. The poor wren, The mod diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her ned, againd the owl. Shakefp. Mach-. All as;es have conceived that thczureti is the lead of birds* yet the difeoveries of America have diewed us one :at lefs* the hum-bird not much exceeding a beetle. Brown's Vulgar Err ours. To Wrench, v. d. [pjunjan* Saxon; wrenghen, Dutch ] 1. To pull by violence; to wred ; to force* IVrench his fword from him. Shakef. Othelloi Oh form! How often do’d thou with thy cafe* thy habit, IVrench awe from fools, and tie the wifer fouls To thy falfe feeming ! Shak. Meafure for Meafure. Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Sb tkeyp. Caefar’s army, wanting fomething, demanded a million or difeharge, though with no intention it fhould be granted ; but thought by that means to wrench him to theif other defires; Bacorti Sing the Parthian* when transfix’d he lies, Wrenching the Roman jav’lin from his thighs. Dryden. Achilles wrench'd it out, and fent again The hodile gift. Dryden, Struggling to get loofe, I broke the drings, and wrenched out the pegs that fadened my arm to the ground. Gull. Travels. 2. Tofprain; to didort. O mod fmall fault! How ugly didd thou in Cordelia (how ? Which, like an engine, wrencht my frame of nature From the fix’d place; drew from my heart all love. And added to the gall. Shakefp. King Lear. You wrenched your foot againd a done, and were forced to (lay. . Swift. Wrench, n.f. [from the verb.] 1. A violent pull or twid. 2. A fprain. 1 Some fmall part of the foot being injured by a wrench, the whole leg thereby lofes its drength. Locke. 3. Wrenches, in Chaucer, fignides means. Heights, fubtilties } which is, I believe, the fenfe here. He refolved to make his proflt of this bufmefs of Britain, as a quarrel for war; and that of Naples as a wrench and mean for peace. Bacon's Henry VII. To WREST, v. a. [ppaeyran, Saxon.] 1. To twid by violence; to extort by writhing or force. To wring this fentence, to wref thereby out of men’s hands the knowledge of God’s dodlrine, is without all reafon. Afcham. To what wretched date referv’d, Better end here unborn! Why is life giv’n. To be thus wrejled from us? Miltons Paradife Lojl. Where you charged in perfon, you were a conqueror: the rebels afterwards recovered drength, and wrejled that victory from others that they had lod to you* Dryden. Our country’s caufe* That drew our fwords, now wrefls ’em from our hand. And bids us not delight in Roman blood, Unprofitably (lied. Addifon's Cato. O prince, I blufli to think what I have faid; But fate has wrejled the confeflion from me* Addifon. 2. To didort; to writhe; to force. So far to extend their fpeeches, is to wrejl them againd: their meaning. Hooker. My father’s purpofes have been midook, And fome about him have too lavifhly Wre/led his meaning and authority. Shakefp. Henry IV. Wrejl once the law to your authority j To do a great right, do a little wrong. Shakefpeare. Wrest, n.f. [from the verb.] 1. Didortion; violence. Whereas it is concluded, out of thofe fo weak premifes, that the retaining of divers things in the church of England, which other reformed churches have cad out, mud needs argue that we do not well, unlefs we can (hew that they have done ill: what needed this wrejl, to draw out from us an accufation of foreign churches ? Hooker. 2. It is ufed in Spenfer and Shakefpeare for an adlive or moving power : I fuppofe, from the force of a tilter adling with his lance in his red. Adown he ked it with fo puiffant wrejl. That back again it did aloft rebound. And gave againd his mother earth a groneful found. F. Shakefp. Antenor is fuch a wrejl in their affairs* That their negotiations all mud flack’n. Wanting his manage. Shakef. Troilus and Crejfda. Wrester, n.f. [from wrejl.] He who wreds. Prior. To Wrestle, v.n, [from wrejl.'] 1. To contend who fhall throw the other down. You have lod the fight of good wrejlling. Shakefpeare. If ever he goes alone again. I’ll never wreflle for prize mere. Shakef As you like it. Milton. Another*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30451541_0002_1156.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
