wrought
2 of 2past tense and past participle of work
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The Uses of Wrought
Wrought may function as the past or the past participle form of the verb work. While not as common as it once was, this past-tense form still is encountered in such combinations as "wrought havoc." Since "wreak havoc" is also a familiar pairing, many people assume that wrought is the past tense of wreak, but the two are actually distinct. Although it still exists as a verb, wrought is more often used today as an adjective, a role in which it has a number of meanings. Most of these are found referring to things or materials which have been in some way worked by people (as in wrought iron or "carefully wrought prose"), but one sense ("deeply stirred") is typically used in describing emotions. When employed in this sense, wrought is often found paired with up (as in "he found himself wrought up over the news").
Examples of wrought in a Sentence
Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 5 Oct. 2025
French doors open onto the rooftop patio, which has a lighter look with a fountain, large umbrellas, olive trees, and a mixture of rattan and wrought-iron furniture.
—Lisa Cericola, Southern Living, 27 Sep. 2025
Her finely wrought Neoclassical sculptures stand as evidence of both her artistic brilliance and her refusal to be defined by the limits of her era.
—Okla Jones, Essence, 24 Sep. 2025
Breakfast, lunch, and evening tapas are served at the Farmhouse restaurant, where tables spill onto a new garden shaded by olive trees and furnished with wrought-iron chairs topped with striped and botanical-print cushions.
—Siobhan Reid, Travel + Leisure, 8 Sep. 2025
Early cans were massive hunks of metal, sometimes literal wrought iron.
—Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 28 Aug. 2025
The best of these have little wrought-iron balconies with café tables right by the water’s edge.
—Ann Abel, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
All the better for tense compositions that confronted decay and disease, pain and nihilism, and dread and destruction with all the subtlety of a circular saw biting into a wrought-iron fence.
—Bob Gendron, Chicago Tribune, 20 Aug. 2025
During the 1984 filming, Reynolds was accidentally clobbered with a wrought-iron chair during a fight scene.
—Gillian Telling, People.com, 4 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wrought.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wrought. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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