Other forms: wringing, wrung, wrings
To wring is to twist something to squeeze the water out. Wring out a cloth, wringing wet, wring your hands.
The twisting is the point: wringing gets far more water out than squeezing does, which is what a mangle mechanised. Wringing wet means soaked through. Wring your hands means to twist them in distress, and hand-wringing is the dismissive term for public anguish that changes nothing. Note that the past is wrung, and that ringing wet is a common mishearing.
1verbwringTo twist something to squeeze the water out.
“Wring out the wet cloth before you wipe the table.”
2verbhandsTo twist the hands in distress.
“She sat by the phone, wringing her hands as she waited for news.”
wring is a twisting.
Old English wringan meant to squeeze or twist, from a Germanic root. Wrong comes from the same twisting — something wrong is something twisted out of true.
Proto-Indo-European
*wrenǵʰ- — to squeeze, wring
Proto-Germanic
*wringaną — to squeeze, twist, wring
Old English
wringan — to wring
Middle English
wring
English, today
wring
From Middle English wring, wringe, wringen, wryng, wrynge, wryngen, wryngyn, from Old English wringan (“to wring”), from Proto-Germanic wringaną (“to squeeze, twist, wring”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European wrenǵʰ- (“to squeeze, wring”). 2 Cognate with Scots wring (“to wring”), stq wringe (“to wring”), Dutch wringen (“to wring; to wrest; to writhe”), German ringen (“to wrestle; to struggle; to wring”), wringen (“to wring”), lb réngen (“to grapple, wrestle”); also Ancient Greek ῥίμφα (“fast, nimbly, rapidly”), Lithuanian rangýti (“to roll up; to curl, twist, wave”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire