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remains of a cross are to be seen in the market-place. 
Abundance of teazles grow in the neighbourhood, which 
form a species of trade, from their use in dressing cloth; and 
some lapis calaminaris is dug and prepared near the town. 
This town was the birth-place of Locke. Market on Tues¬ 
day, well supplied with corn, &c.; and a fair on Michaelmas 
day; 12 miles south of Bristol. Population 1109. 
WRINGWORTHY, a hamlet of England, in Devonshire, 
near Tavistock. 
WRI'NKLE, s. [ppincle, Saxon; wrinhel, Dutch.] 
Corrugation or furrow of the skin ox the face. 
Give me that glass, and therein will I read : 
No deeper wrinkles yet ? Hath sorrow struck 
So many blows upon this face of mine, 
And made no deeper wounds ? Shakspeare. 
Rumple of cloth.—Any roughness. 
Our British heaven was all serene; 
No threat’ning cloud was nigh, 
Not the least wrinkle to deform the sky. Dryden. 
To WRI'NKLE, v. a . [pmnclian, Saxon.] To corrugate; 
to contract into furrows. 
It is still fortune’s use 
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth. 
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow 
An age of poverty. Shakspeare. 
To make rough or uneven. 
A keen north-wind, blowing dry. 
Wrinkled the face of deluge as decay’d. Milton. 
WRISSA, a town of Hindostan, province of Sinde, and 
district of Tatta. It is situated on the west bank of the river 
Indus. Lat. 24. 55. N. long. 68.25. E. 
WRIST, s. [pypjx, Saxon ; from ppaepcan, torquere. 
Mr. H. Tooke .] The joint by which the hand is joined to 
the arm.—The brawn of the arm must appear full, shadowed 
on one side; then shew the wrist-hone thereof. Peacham. 
—The axillary artery, below the cubit, divideth unto two 
parts, the one running along the radius, and passing by the 
wrist, or place of the pulse, is at the fingers subdivided into 
three branches. Brown. 
WRI'STBAND, s. [wrist and hand.'] The fastening of 
the shirt at the hand. 
You’ll—dip your wristbands 
(For cuffs y’ have none) as comely in the sauce 
As any courtier. Beautn. and FI. 
WRIT, s. Anything written; Scripture. This sense is 
now chiefly used in speaking of the Bible.—Bagdat rises out 
of the ruins of the old city of Babylon, so much spoken of 
in holy writ. Knolles. —A judicial process, by which any 
one is summoned as an offender. 
Hold up your head ; hold up your hand: 
Wou’d it were not my lot to shew ye 
This cruel writ, wherein you stand 
Indicted by the name of Cloe. Prior. 
A legal instrument. 
The king is fled to London, 
To call a present court of parliament: 
Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth. Shakspeare. 
WRIT. The preterite of write. 
When Sappho writ. 
By their applause the critics show’d their wit. Prior. 
WRIT, formed from the Saxon writan, to write, Breve, 
a precept of the king in writing, under seal, issuing out of 
some court to the sheriff or other person, whereby any thing 
is commanded to be done, touching a suit or action, or giv¬ 
ing commission to have it done: as, the summoning of a 
defendant, taking a distress, redressing a disseisin, or the. 
like. Or, according to Fitzherbert, a writ is a formal letter 
of the king in parchment, sealed with a seal, and directed to 
some j udge, officer, or minister, &c. at the suit or plaint of 
a subject, requiring to have a thing done, for the cause 
briefly expressed, which is to be discussed in the proper court 
according to law. 
Writs are variously divided, and in various respects. Some, 
with regard to their order, or manner of granting, are termed 
original, and others judicial. 
Writs, Original, are those seut out of the high court of 
chancery, to summon the defendant in a personal or tenant 
in a real action; either before the suit begins, or to begin the 
suit by it. 
Royal writs are held to be demandable of common right, 
on paying the usual fees; for any delay in the granting of 
them, or setting an unusual or exorbitant price upon them, 
would be a breach of Magna Charta, cap. 29. “ Nulli ven- 
demus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus justitiam vel rectum.” 
Original writs are either optional or peremptory, or, in 
the language of our law, they are either a precipe, or a si te 
fecerit securum. 
Writs, Judicial, are those sent by order of the court 
where the cause depends upon emergent occasions, after the 
suit begins. 
WRI'TATIVE. A word of Pope’s coining: not to be 
imitated.—Increase of years makes men more talkative, but 
less writative; to that degree, that I now write no letters but 
of plain how d’ye’s. Pope. 
To WRITE, v. a. pret. writ or wrote ; part. pass, writ¬ 
ten, writ, or wrote, [ppitan, appican, Saxon ; rita, Ice- 
landick; writs, a letter, Gothick.] To express by means of 
letters. 
I’ll write you down, 
The which shall point you forth at every silting. 
What you must say. Shakspeare. 
The time, the place, the manner how to meet, 
Were all in punctual order plainly writ. Dryden. 
To engrave; to impress.—Cain was so fully convinced 
that every one had a right to destroy such a criminal, that he 
cries out, Every one that findeth me shall slay me; so plain 
was it writ in the hearts of all mankind. Locke. —To pro¬ 
duce as an author. 
When more indulgent to the writer’s ease, 
You are so good, to be so hard to please; 
No such convulsive pangs it will require 
To write —the pretty things that you admire. Granville. 
To tell by letter, 
I chose to write the thing I durst not speak 
To her I lov’d. Prior. 
To WRITE, v. n. To perform the act of writing.—I 
have seen her rise from her bed, take forth paper, fold it, and 
write upon’t. Shakspeare. —To play the author.—There is 
not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a 
man who has written himself down. Addison. —To tell in 
books, 
I past the melancholy flood, 
With that grim ferryman which poets write of. Shakspeare. 
To send letters.—He wrote for all the Jews concerning 
their freedom. 1 Esdr. —To call one’s self; to be entitled; 
to use the style of.—Those who begun to write themselves 
men, but thought it no shame to learn. Fell. —He writes 
himself divina providentia, whereas other bishops only use 
divina permissione. Ayliff'e. —To compose; to form com¬ 
positions. 
Chaste, moral writing we may learn from hence. 
Neglect of which no wit can recompense; 
The fountain which from Helicon proceeds, 
That sacred stream should never water weeds. Waller. 
WRI'TER, s. One who practises the art of writing. An 
author.—All three were ruined by justice and seutence, as 
delinquents; and all three famous writers. Bacon. 
To WRITHE, v. a. [ppi'San, Saxon.] To distort; to 
deform with distortion. 
It cannot be this weak and writhed shrimp 
Should strike such terror in his enemies. Shakspeare. 
Her 
