From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwrestwrest /rest/ verb [transitive always + adverb/preposition] 1 TAKE something FROM somebody formal to take power or influence away from someone, especially when this is difficult They are fighting to wrest control of the party from the old leaders.2 TAKE something FROM somebody literary to pull something away from someone violently I managed to wrest the photograph from his grasp.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
wrest• The Democrats failed in wresting control of Congress from the Republicans.• Mr Hikmatyar is trying to wrest control of the capital from the defence minister, Ahmad Shah Masood.• In their view, the automatic machinery was unreliable and the management was wrong to attempt to wrest controls from the shop-floor.• The thought of reclaiming what had been wrongfully wrested from him began to sough through every fevered fiber of his being.• That alliance promised the prospect of a kingdom in the areas which they wrested from Ottoman control.• Feet braced, back arched, she put both hands on the machine, trying to wrest it back.• I stood up, wresting myself out of this nightmare.• The former building society is understood to be prepared to take court action if it does not wrest the compensation from Lloyds.• A security guard managed to wrest the gun from the man.• Only the inner satellites were its permanent property; the Sun could never wrest them from its grasp.Origin wrest Old English wræstan 