Literary notes about wring (AI summary)
The word "wring" in literature is deployed in a dual fashion—both as a literal description of physical twisting and as a metaphor for forcibly extracting something intangible. It can vividly depict violent physical actions, such as twisting an animal’s neck or threatening bodily harm (e.g., [1], [2], [3]), while at the same time evoking a sense of emotional strain or desperate persuasion, as when a character is compelled to yield a cry of anguish or a confession (e.g., [4], [5], [6]). Authors further extend its usage to portray anxious behaviors—wringing one's hands as an emblem of inner torment (e.g., [7], [8], [9])—or even to illustrate the process of drawing out an element, from knowledge to a heartfelt response (e.g., [10], [11]). This layered application enriches the narrative tone, making "wring" a powerful term that intersects physical coercion with psychological intensity.
- It makes me kind of faint to wring an old goose’s neck.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - “You have certainly been talking with my Master-maid!” said the giant, “and if you have I will wring your neck.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang - I'll wring his calf's head off his body with these hands, Dick!”
— from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - But he never reached her, he never heard the cry of anguish he hoped to wring from her.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie - He was going off to find that fellow and to wring the truth out of him at all costs.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield - I'll wring it out of you at home if I can't wring it out of you here.'
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Her father's only answer was to draw his hands through his white hair, and wring them with a shriek of anguish.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - She could only shake her head, and wring her hands, as one not to be comforted.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - The whole house was in a turmoil, Thenichka greatly upset, and Nikolai able to do nothing but wring his hands.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - To involve her in the danger of a second detection, to court her into an apartment which must wring her heart, could not be the office of a friend.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - He has gone there to wring my secrets from your husband.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon