▪ I. writhing, vbl. n.
(ˈraɪðɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb in various senses; an instance of this. Also with away. Occas. fig.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 119 With writhyng of a pyn. c 1420 Lydg. Ballad Commend. Our Lady 96 Ȝif ony offence or writhyng in hem be, Þu art ay redy up-on her woo for to rewe. c 1520 Skelton Magnyf. 136 Yf Lyberte lacked a reyne Where with to rule hym with the wrythyng of a rest. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 241 Let..thy laughter [be] without vnseemely writhing of thy mouth and visage. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 60 A writhing away or turning about of the bodie. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 189 Ill⁓fauoured gestures, and writhing of their mouth and eyes. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 84 The Writhing [of a tree] is the turning of branches. 1743 Francis tr. Hor., Odes i. xxxvii. 34 The Writhings of the wrathful Asp. 1827 Keble Chr. Year, Wedn. before Easter, The writhings of a wounded heart. 1835 R. M. Bird Hawks (1856) 134 Sterling..could not trace a single writhing or quivering of limb. 1889 Clark Russell Marooned xii, A slow writhing..of the shadowy substance of the brig's sails, masts, and hull, into determinable forms. |
b. spec. in old glass: cf. writhen ppl. a. 1 c.
| 1926 G. R. Francis Old Eng. Drinking Glasses p. xxxi, Wrythen, external decoration of the bowl by twisting or wrything while still hot. 1929 W. A. Thorpe Hist. Eng. & Irish Glass v. 166 The wrything was done by twisting the paraison while it was being blown. |
† 2. = wresting vbl. n. 2, wringing vbl. n. 4.
| 1555 Travers in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. App. 87 Without wrythyng, wrastyng, or doubtyng of his promis. 1562 Cooper Answ. Defence Truth 78 All the argumentes that you haue brought are nothing but writhinges of extraordinary cases. 1662 Hibbert Body Divinity i. 189 What wrything and wringing the Protestants make to shift off this place. |
▪ II. ˈwrithing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
† 1. That wrings or extorts; practising extortion.
| c 1520 [see wresting ppl. a.]. |
2. That writhes; twisting or turning to and fro.
| 1798 R. Bloomfield Farmer's Boy 76 Where writhing earth-worms meet th' unwelcome day. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. xcvii, Smiles..raise the writhing lip with ill-dissembled sneer. 1865 Baring-Gould Werewolves x. 170 The forked and writhing lightning. 1882 T. S. Hudson Scamper through Amer. 171 Our driver adroitly left one [rattlesnake] a writhing corpse. |
| transf. 1897 Howells Landlord at Lion's Head 3 The children whose faces watched them through the writhing window panes. |
3. Marked or characterized by sinuous or tortuous movement.
| 1808 Jamieson, Wringle, a writhing motion. 1818 Hazlitt Lect. Poets iii. 128 The writhing agonies within. 1848 Lytton Harold v, A writhing attempt to smile. |
Hence ˈwrithingly adv., in a writhing manner.
| 1611 Cotgr., Tortuément,..wryingly, writhingly. 1822 New Monthly Mag. IV. 524 The monster..turned writhingly. 1883 R. Broughton Belinda iii. vii, Turning over writhingly in her chair. |