[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, Were-wolves, 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 Writhingly adv., in a writhing manner.
1611. Cotgr., Tortuément,… wryingly, writhingly.
1822. New Monthly Mag., IV. 524. The monster … turned writhingly.
1883. Miss Broughton, Belinda, III. vii. Turning over writhingly in her chair.
