👨‍🔧 A repair worker 🔧 A turning tool 💔 A sad moment

wrencher

9.9

Something that causes sudden strong emotional pain

noun
/ˈrɛnʧər/

: doloroso

Lacks that one wrencher scene. "Not even in the courtroom?" Sloan yanked at her mother's hair.

Examples

Her story about losing her childhood pet was a real wrencher for everyone listening.
Well, that was a gut-wrencher.

Blog text (5)
Looks to me like one of those gut wrenchers.

Magic (1978)
The ending of the movie was such a wrencher that it left everyone in tears.
Watching him walk away was a wrencher; I could feel the pain in my chest.

How Distressing

devastation

13 5.8

trauma

Specialized

304 4.8

wrencher

9.9

shock

567 2.3

upset

20 1.8

Surface Forms

wrencher singular

wrenchers plural

Morphology

wrencher = wrench (semi-transparent) = wrench + er

The morphology is regular ('wrench' + '-er'), but the emotional/figurative extension (someone or something causing an emotional pang) is metaphorical and not fully predictable for all learners.

Etymology

Wrencher comes from the verb wrench, which means 'to pull or twist suddenly'. A helpful way to remember this sense is that a wrencher can be something that gives a sudden emotional pull, so it causes sharp pain or distress.