wrest

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To obtain or remove by pulling with twisting movements.
• transitive verb To take possession of forcefully; seize or usurp.
• transitive verb To gain or extract with persistent effort; wring.
• noun A small tuning key for the wrest pins of a stringed instrument.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To twist or turn; especially, to deflect, as from the existing or normal state, character, course, or significance: now used chiefly of immaterial things.
• To remove, obtain, or bring by or as if by twisting or wringing; extract or pluck with. much effort; wring; wrench.
• To wrestle; contend; strive.
• noun The mold-board of a plow: originally its front portion. See turn-wrest plow (under plow).
• noun l A twist; a writhing.
• noun A tortuous action; distortion; perversion; hence, a ruse; a stratagem. Compare wrench, n., 1.
• noun An instrument of the wrench, screw-key, or spanner kind; specifically, a key or small wrench for tuning stringed musical instruments, as the harp or piano, by turning the pins to which the strings are fastened. See tuning-hammer, and tuning-key (under key).
• noun The partition in an overshot wheel which determines the form of the buckets.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To turn; to twist; esp., to twist or extort by violence; to pull of force away by, or as if by, violent wringing or twisting.
• transitive verb To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort.
• transitive verb obsolete To tune with a wrest, or key.
• noun The act of wresting; a wrench; a violent twist; hence, distortion; perversion.
• noun obsolete Active or moving power.
• noun A key to tune a stringed instrument of music.
• noun A partition in a water wheel, by which the form of the buckets is determined.
• noun (Piano Manuf.) one of the pins around which the ends of the wires are wound in a piano.
• noun (Piano Manuf.) the part in which the wrest pins are inserted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To pull or twist violently.
• verb To obtain by pulling or violent force.
• verb figuratively To seize
• verb figuratively To twist, pervert, distort.
• noun The act of wresting; a wrench or twist; distortion.
• noun obsolete Active or motive power.
• noun music A key to tune a stringed instrument.
• noun A partition in a water wheel by which the form of the buckets is determined.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically