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A contortion, or twist. [Obs.] If you talk, Or pull your face into a stitch again, I shall be angry. Marston.

The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing. Strike block (Carp.), a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint. Moxon. -- Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. -- Strike of sugar. (Sugar Making) (a) The act…

To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.

To play tricks by various movements and contortions of the body; to perform the feats of an acrobat. Rowe. To tumble home (Naut.), to incline inward, as the sides of a vessel, above the bends or extreme breadth; -- used esp. in the phrase tumbling home. Cf. Wall-sided.

The act of twisting; a contortion; a flexure; a convolution; a bending. Not the least turn or twist in the fibers of any one animal which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other cast or texture. Addison.

Fig.: One who lives by preying on others; an extortioner; a bloodsucker.

Fig.: The practice of extortion. Carlyle.

The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion. Hooker.

To move with short, quick contortions; to move by twisting and squirming; like a worm. Covetousness will wriggle itself out at a small hole. Fuller. Wriggling his body to recover His seat, and cast his right leg over. Hudibras.

To subject to extortion; to afflict, or oppress, in order to enforce compliance. To wring the widow from her 'customed right. Shak. The merchant adventures have been often wronged and wringed to the quick. Hayward.

One who, or that which, wrings; hence, an extortioner.

; perverted. He . . . puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers. Atterbury. Wry face, a distortion of the countenance indicating impatience, disgust, or discomfort; a grimace.