Definitions

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

  • adjective Put together; created.
  • adjective Shaped by hammering with tools. Used chiefly of metals or metalwork.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Worked, as distinguished from rough: noting masonry, carpentry, etc.

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

  • adjective Worked; elaborated; not rough or crude.
  • adjective See under Iron.
  • imp. & p. p. of work.

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

  • adjective Having been worked or prepared somehow.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of work.

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

  • adjective shaped to fit by or as if by altering the contours of a pliable mass (as by work or effort)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English wroght, from Old English geworht, past participle of wyrcan, to work; see werg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The past participle of Middle English werken ("to work"), from Old English wyrcan (past tense worhte, past participle geworht), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijanan, from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with wright (as in wheelwright etc.).

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Examples

  • Devotees of that icon will view any attempt to alter the universe with deep suspicion, and as flawed and tattered as it might be, there will be a very high bar set for anyone who tries to reshape -- or "reboot" -- the sacred world to prove that what they have wrought is truly an improvement on what came before.

    To Boldly Go... 2009

  • Even then, the maximum penalty that can be wrought is the forfeiture of the boat and her cargo (but emphatically not imprisonment of thecrew).

    The Volokh Conspiracy » What’s Going on With Turkey 2010

  • Even then, the maximum penalty that can be wrought is the forfeiture of the boat and her cargo (but emphatically not imprisonment of the crew).

    The Volokh Conspiracy » What’s Going on With Turkey 2010

  • I just get mad when people seem to think that farmers are on “welfare” subsidies and riding some kind of gravy train wrought from protectionism.

    Matthew Yglesias » Soda Lobbying 2010

  • On the other hand, here is a critique of imperialism wrought from the insatiable appropriation and repurposing of subordinate cultural material.

    GreenCine Daily: DVDs, 12/17. 2006

  • It even had a name, set in wrought iron letters above the closed-in driveway doors: "Casona de Tzintzuntzan", "the manor house in the place where the hummingbirds gather".

    Renovating our Morelia house 2006

  • It even had a name, set in wrought iron letters above the closed-in driveway doors: "Casona de Tzintzuntzan", "the manor house in the place where the hummingbirds gather".

    Renovating our Morelia house 2006

  • I saw what the murderous, brutal regime of Saddam Hussein wrought on that country through his party and their fedayeen henchmen.

    Letters to the Editor 2004

  • I saw what the murderous, brutal regime of Saddam Hussein wrought on that country through his party and their fedayeen henchmen.

    Letters to the Editor 2004

  • For others the prospect of the radical change which must be wrought is too heartrending to be contemplated and the comfort of the known is preferable.

    Some Views on South Africa's Future 1989

Comments

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  • Citation at sedge.

    November 13, 2008

  • (adjective) Deeply disturbed or excited.

    April 7, 2009