abstort

English

Etymology

From Latin ab- + tortus, past participle of torqueo (“I twist”).

Verb

abstort (third-person singular simple present abstorts, present participle abstorting, simple past and past participle abstorted)

1. (transitive, rare) To wrest by force or persuasion.
   • 1745, Christian Ludovici, Teutsch-englisches Lexicon, page 767:

     he has violently and wrongfully abstorted it from them.

   • 1858, Edward Nichols Dennys, The Alpha: A Revelation, But No Mystery, page 285:

     It is needless to remark on the modesty of this epithet when assumed by men;—and by such men! by the lord Johns, and the lord Harrys, who even now abstort from us more homage than we yield to Heaven!

   • 1936, Guy Innes, New Statesman and Nation - Volume 10; Volume 46, page 176:

     How stillsome and flooth could suburbity be Were the gramsters abstorted by felo-de-se- For I daminate grams, and they scruciate me!

   • 1978, The Bombay Civic Journal - Volume 25, page 7:

     […] abstorting surplus staff wherever found necessary.