Revised as of
14 July 2023
No. This simply does not work for me “helping to work the wenches”. At least not in the context of this steampunk story.
I suppose, considering the primary definition for wench, that one could well “work the wenches”, so keep that in mind. However, if you’re hauling something up . . . hmmm, I suppose you could haul up a wench too??? But in the general scheme of things, winches haul, wenches may haul ass to get away, and wrenches tend to haul on a stubborn bolt.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “Wench vs Winch vs Wrench” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Wench | Winch | Wrench |
|---|---|---|
Wench Showing Pantalettes by Darren Stone is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Mooring Line Deployment Winch courtesy of Heerema is under the GNU General Public License 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Dopsleutel is M.M. Minderhoud’s own work under the GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — I do love those socket wrenches! |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun; Verb, intransitive
Plural for the noun: wenches Third person present verb: wenches |
Noun 1; Verb, transitive 2
Plural for the noun: winches Third person present verb: winches |
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive
Plural for the noun: wrenches Third person present verb: wrenches |
| Noun: [Archaic; humorous] A girl or young woman, especially a peasant
Verb, intransitive:
|
Noun: A hauling or lifting device consisting of a rope, cable, or chain winding around a horizontal rotating drum, turned by a crank or by motor or other power source 1 Windlass The crank of a wheel or axle Verb, transitive: |
Noun: [Usually singular noun] A sudden violent twist or pull A feeling of sadness or distress caused by one’s own or another’s departure A tool used for gripping and turning nuts, bolts, pipes, etc. [Mechanics] A combination of a couple with a force along its axis Verb, intransitive: Verb, transitive:
|
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: We talked Maggie into a sexy French maid costume; it’ll help her get in touch with her inner wench, lol. The story of Cinderella is a fairytale that could be about a lowly kitchen wench being transformed into an elegant lady. It feels so demeaning when my boyfriend calls me wench! He was enamored of the wench. Verb, intransitive: He goes a’wenching every night. He wenches. But so do we all. |
Noun: Get that winch working if we’re to haul that anchor up. The winch is jammed. Wrap that cable around the winch. Verb, transitive: The crew winched up the anchor. Gregor was glad enough to winch the bales up into the hayloft as the day came to an end. |
Noun: With a wrench, Tony wriggled free. It will be a real wrench to leave after eight years. It was a practical buy, getting that SAE and metric wrench set. He’ll need a wrench to loosen up that pipe. That sure put a monkey wrench in the works. Verb, intransitive: I tried to wrench free from his grip. She wrenched at the window trying to open it. The memory wrenched at his conscience. Verb, transitive: She wrenched herself free of his grip. She slipped and wrenched her ankle. She wrenched the toy from his grasp. It took some doing, but he wrenched it free. It is a lie to wrench our Bible to make it fit a misconception of facts. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Noun: wencher | Noun: wincher | Adverb: wrenchingly |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Middle English as an abbreviation of the obsolete wenchel meaning child, servant, or prostitute. It is perhaps related to the Old English wancol meaning unsteady or inconstant. |
|
Late Old English wrencan meaning twist is of unknown origin. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Wench vs Winch vs Wrench
Apple Dictionary.com
The Free Dictionary: wrench
Pinterest Photo Credits
Winch Porsche by Popie~commonswiki is under the under the GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. Oktoberfest by alessandranova is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via VisualHunt. And we may need my pipe wrench to free the wench!
