wrall, to quarrel, to grumble. Tusser, Husbandry, § 101. 4; ‘This my tongue-wralling’, Webster, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120.
wrawl, to make an inarticulate noise, to caterwaul; ‘Cats that wrawling still did cry’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 27. Cp. ME. wrawhre, ‘traulus’ (Prompt. EETS. 40, see note, no. 181). See NED. (s.v. Caterwaul).
wray, to disclose. Gascoigne, Works, i. 41. ME. wreye, to bewray. reveal (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3503); also, bewreye, ‘The conseil is bewreid’ (Gower, C. A. v. 6785). OE. wrēgan, to denounce, accuse. See Dict. (s.v. Bewray).
wread, to wreathe, to twist, twine, curl; ‘The snake about him wrigling winding wreades’, Twyne, tr. of Aeneid, xi. 753. See EDD. (s.v. Wreath, sb.1 7).
wreak, vengeance. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, ii. 3 (M. Tullius); Knight of Malta, iv. 1 (Zanthia); ‘wrathful wreakes’, angry acts of vengeance, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 43; 12. 16; to avenge, punish, F. Q. ii. 3. 13. Hence wreakful, full of vengeance, Titus And. v. 2. 32. ME. wreke, ‘vindicta, ulcio’ (Prompt.); wreken, to avenge (Chaucer, C. T. C. 857). OE. wrecan, to punish.
wreak, to ‘reck’, to care. As You Like It, ii. 4. 81 (ed. 1623); Marlowe, tr. Ovid’s Elegies, ii. 11. 22; wreaked, recked, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec., 29. Hence wreakless, reckless, careless, 3 Hen. VI, v. 6. 7. Cp. EDD. (s.v. Wreak, vb.). OE. rēcan (pret. rōhte), to rack, care for (Sweet); see Wright, OE. Gram., § 534.
wrest, a tuning-key for a harp. Tr. and Cr. iii. 3. 23.
wretchock, the smallest pig of a litter; smallest chicken in a hatch; a diminutive creature. B. Jonson, Gipsies’ Metam. (Jackman); Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 465. A Worc. word for the smallest pig of a litter (EDD.).
wries; see [wry].
wrig, to turn aside. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 573 (L. contorsit). In prov. use in the Midlands, meaning to writhe (EDD.).