[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. † a. Of hands: That undergo wringing, squeezing or pressing; wrung under distress. Obs.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 2324. Heo … seh … wepmen & wummen, mid wringinde honden wepinde sare.
1579. E. Hake, Newes out of Powles (1872), B vj. Another cryes with wringing handes.
1596. Roman Charity, in Roxb. Ball., VIII. 6. With wringing hands and bitter teares, these words pronounced she.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., I. 73. Wringing Hands and Gnashing Teeth thenceforth and for ever.
b. Quasi-adv. in wringing-wet, very wet; so wet that moisture may be wrung out.
a. 1500. Flower & Leaf, 406. To drie here clothes that were wringing wete.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., 49 b. Maydens … dabbled all with durt, and wringing wette.
a. 1614. Serm. Jude i. in Hooker’s Wks. (1888), III. 665. A poor fisherman … with his clothes wringing wet.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, III. i. 377. The wringing-wet Influence (as Houswives call it) of ♂ and ♀.
1847. Illustr. Lond. News, 21 Aug., 128/2. Their handkerchiefs are ‘wringing-wet.’
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 387. Then I clutch … a wringing wet blanket.
1901. Alldridge, Sherbro, xxiii. Foot-sore, utterly exhausted, and wringing wet with perspiration.
2. That writhes or twists.
1597. Deloney, Gentle Craft, ii. Wks. (1912), 81. The wrathfull Dragon with his long, wringing taile.
3. Causing pain, distress or anguish; racking, distressing.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs (1880), 27. Nipping neede & wringing want.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 250. The wringing pains in the bellie.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 188. A painfull wringing grief in the body after food.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, II. viii. One task … which, however wringing to my heart, must be completed.
1891. Hannah Lynch, G. Meredith, 88. The wringing sorrows brought about by his own baseness.
b. Characterized by oppression or extortion.
1620. [see WRESTLING ppl. a. 2].
1814. Byron, Lara, II. viii. Many a wringing despot … Who work’d his wantonness in form of law.
c. Causing straining or stretching (of the fingers).
1676. Mace, Musick’s Mon., 41. Therefore were they constrain’d to extreme hard, cross, and wringing Stops … upon the Finger-board.
