1
as in pulled
to move by or as if by a forceful rotation
with one last sharp yank, he wrenched the lid off the bottle of ketchup
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
3
as in yanked
to separate or remove by forceful pulling
wrenched the post out of the ground
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of wrenched
And Ahmed al-Ahmed, who came to Australia from Syria in 2006, a former policeman who now owns a fruit stand at Bondi Beach, tackled one of the gunmen and wrenched the rifle from him, even as he was wounded himself.
—
Scott Simon, NPR, 20 Dec. 2025
Sirens wailed and gunshots rang out as the two men grappled for several seconds, before Ahmed wrenched the gun from the attacker’s hands.
—Laura Sharman, CNN Money, 15 Dec. 2025
The man then tackled the shooter and wrenched the gun away from him.
—Anders Hagstrom , Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 14 Dec. 2025
In the video, one officer wrenched the bathroom door open.
—Idaho Statesman, 14 Nov. 2025
Phillips drove a Green Bay Packers tight end backward, latched onto running back Josh Jacobs with his long left arm and wrenched Jacobs downward.
—Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2025
But this just shows you how every debate there is wrenched into this absurdist distortion.
—Fiction Non Fiction, Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wrenched
Verb
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Chicago pulled within 21-16 on D'Andre Swift's 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter.—
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The slightly oversized cut offers comfort for long travel days, while looking pulled-together.—
Verb
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Officer Alex Millan then yanked open the passenger door of the suspects’ car; at the same time, the car drove forward over the curb.—
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Furious too that anyone could think the defender had deliberately yanked the striker’s hair.—
Verb
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These shifts allowed researchers to calculate how Titan’s gravity tugged on the spacecraft, revealing how flexible—or malleable—the moon is.—
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In fact, one of my most vivid memories was sitting between my mother’s legs getting my hair brushed, tugged, and pulled into a low, sleek bun for my track meets.—
Verb
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Multiple tornadoes already tore through several states this week.—
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But Parsons tore his ACL in Week 15, and the Packers lost four in a row after that ghastly break.—
Verb
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Aisha jerked and opened her eyes.—
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The two stood nose-to-nose on the field when the Steelers player grabbed onto Chase’s facemask, jerked his head and appeared to punch him.—
Verb
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Javonte Green missed a potential tying 3-point try and Paul Reed grabbed the rebound, but committed Detroit's 25th turnover.—
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Carolyn Collins scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Mya Korpal had 15 points as Winchester came back to defeat Reading 54-53 in Middlesex League play.—
Verb
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An all-star cast plucked from different corners of the pop culture firmament leads Ryan Murphy's All's Fair, a Hulu legal drama about female divorce attorneys who open their own practice.—
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Such is life in Marthaland, where homemaking tasks are plucked from the realm of everyday drudgery and elevated to a pure pursuit of excellence.—
Verb
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One person was taken into custody after a fire ripped through a synagogue in Mississippi, heavily damaging the historic house of worship in what authorities say was an act of arson.—
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This gripping page-turner — featuring a decades-old murder, a writer in town to tell the real story and an oncoming tempest — feels like it was ripped from the juiciest headlines.—
Cite this Entry
“Wrenched.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wrenched. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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