wrested

verb

past tense of wrest
1
as in pried
to draw out by force or with effort the boy wrested the book out of his sister's hands

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in extorted
to get (as money) by the use of force or threats vowed that the bully had wrested his lunch money from him for the last time

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in earned
to get with great difficulty farmers who were used to wresting a living from the harsh land

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4
as in pulled
to move by or as if by a forceful rotation I need a strong arm to wrest the lid off this pickle jar

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5
as in grabbed
to separate or remove by forceful pulling wrested open the stuck door of the cabinet

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of wrested Another unidentified witness saw the struggle and wrested the knife from Rivas, according to police. — David Lyons, Sun Sentinel, 3 Aug. 2026 In this case, the production company Embassy Pictures wrested control of Crimewave away from Raimi after a challenging shoot, leading the director to disavow the film. — David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2026 And yet, no one has wrested the crown away from the attention king. — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 8 July 2026 Amid the fallout, Honarkar lost possession of most of his properties, including the historic Hotel Laguna, where a public scuffle had broken out in 2023 between his security team and guards working for the partner who wrested control of the landmark. — Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2026 That was when microbes wrested energy from light and, in the process, breathed new life into the world. — Quanta Magazine, 10 June 2026 Control was wrested back towards the end of the period, a sign of better things to come, even if that profligacy that has dogged them so much reared once again in stoppage time at the end of the half. — Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 28 May 2026 Women are wrested from their seats and don’t return. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 29 Apr. 2026 OpenAI briefly considered plans to transition into a for-profit company in 2024, which would have wrested control from the nonprofit and kept it as a separate arm. — Ashley Capoot, CNBC, 24 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wrested
  1. pried
  2. extorted
  3. earned
  4. pulled
  5. grabbed
  6. yanked
  7. squeezed
  8. wrenched
Verb
  • But maybe pried his focus and joy and freedom away just a little bit going into the year.
    — Will Sammon, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The latest was on Sunday, when interior doors of the restaurant were forced and pried open and $1,300 was stolen, all while a cleaning crew was inside.
    — Jess Fleming, Twin Cities, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of pried
Verb
  • Clement later successfully extorted one of Roshanki’s friends for $5,000 in drug proceeds, then insisted that Roshanski owed him money for drugs and fraud.
    — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The police chief allegedly extorted the victim and the victim’s father in connection with the pending murder case.
    — Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026
Definition of extorted
Verb
  • No one is questioning that Davion Mitchell has earned and is capable of holding a spot in the Heat’s rotation.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 6 Sep. 2026
  • After attending Bucharest’s Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography, she was accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, then later earned a master’s degree from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
    — Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of earned
Verb
  • But Joshi says mental health care is often treated as an afterthought in disaster situations, and resources can get pulled before people have fully made sense of the trauma.
    — Jonathan Lambert, NPR, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Cheers erupted as video on Friday showed the first man – 30-year-old mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah – being pulled from the tunnel.
    — Sana Noor Haq, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of pulled
Verb
  • The lawsuit by a Los Angeles studio claims Michael Shvartsman demanded early repayment, threatened its CEO and grabbed a bigger slice of profits after the film’s Mar-a-Lago premiere.
    — Ben Wieder, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2026
  • The man grabbed his iguana (which survived the flight) and left.
    — Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of grabbed
Verb
  • Hours later, as the couple sat in a car outside a west Fort Worth bowling alley, an unknown man yanked open the passenger door.
    — Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Sep. 2026
  • In one clip, a pair of people sit in a small box attached to a wire as they're yanked onto a platform across a river in Nuwakot, Nepal.
    — Robert McGreevy, FOXNews.com, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of yanked
Verb
  • Add in Braxton Berrios, the Giants’ punt returner and backup slot receiver, and that squeezed Slayton out.
    — Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 7 Sep. 2026
  • Independent designers, once a discovery engine, were being squeezed, while the biggest brands put more investment into their own stores, creating a dichotomy in experiences that Bron felt was palpable.
    — Hilary Milnes, Vogue, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of squeezed
Verb
  • The sibling drama, meanwhile, rather fades out of view amid these loftier goings-on; the film’s narrative begins to feel devised by the old parlor game Consequences, repeatedly wrenched in erratic new directions.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Miriam had given her a heavy coat and wrenched open the silver door.
    — Rachel Yoder, New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of wrenched

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wrest
wrested
wresting
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Cite this Entry

“Wrested.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wrested. Accessed 9 Sep. 2026.

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