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What is "wield"

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wield
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wield
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
brandish/wield a knife (=wave it around in a threatening way)
▪ A man brandishing a knife burst into the room.
exercise/wield influenceformal (= use it)
▪ The Federal Reserve exercises influence on the economy by setting short-term interest rates.
wield powerformal (= use power - used when someone has a lot of power)
▪ The Church still wields enormous power in the country.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
authority
▪ He remained calm and imposing, a true Commander-in-Chief wielding sovereign authority.
▪ He wielded real moral authority, to my eye.
▪ But more characteristic was the visible manipulation of supernatural power by men and women who wielded authority.
▪ Shields fired when Kao, who was drunk, advanced at him wielding a stick, authorities said.
▪ The programme never described him as such, though he certainly wields the authority you would expect that title would give him.
axe
▪ I should prefer to watch him in the primeval forests of his native land, wielding an axe against some giant tree.
▪ People who wielded axes and carving knives.
government
▪ Now a generation of southern Republicans, brought up resenting the interfering ways of the federal government, is wielding disproportionate power.
group
▪ In the chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lobbying group, she wields considerable influence in the Valley and beyond.
▪ Moreover, the actual spending will be tilted toward groups that wield the most political power.
▪ In any case, the whole process will be modified by the ability of each group to wield power and influence.
influence
▪ Culturally dominant and playing a pervasive role in the everyday life of élite and masses alike, it wielded enormous influence.
▪ Hillary Clinton is married to Bill Clinton; she used to be a lawyer and wields considerable influence as first lady.
▪ In the chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lobbying group, she wields considerable influence in the Valley and beyond.
▪ Most witches were women, often aged derelicts who wielded great influence over the people.
▪ Karajan was comfortable with his stature as a power broker and not at all shy about wielding his influence.
▪ Traditionally within the scope of human imagination only gods had wielded such mighty influence on the affairs of men.
▪ Conservatism went into relative eclipse. while Labour under Clement Attlee was able to wield influence in the coalition government.
▪ In any case, the whole process will be modified by the ability of each group to wield power and influence.
knife
▪ People who wielded axes and carving knives.
▪ The teen-ager reportedly said he saw a stranger wielding a knife, and ran from the house when the man threatened him.
▪ Read in studio A woman has been raped in her own home by a masked man wielding a knife.
▪ Despite all this wielding of scalpel and knife some issues remain resolutely fudged.
man
▪ Perhaps the man wielding the scalpel was not a qualified doctor at all.
▪ Both men wield wonderful, not to say mythic, influence to this day.
▪ Read in studio A woman has been raped in her own home by a masked man wielding a knife.
▪ As the new man at Century wielding the new broom, he expected that decisions and policies would come to his desk.
▪ And maybe they would be cowed not only by the discipline but by the man who wielded it.
▪ But more characteristic was the visible manipulation of supernatural power by men and women who wielded authority.
▪ These were not men who wielded feather dusters.
▪ However that may be, there certainly were great men, who wielded considerable political power.
power
▪ Mortal, I have never felt such great power wielded.
▪ The Vatican had exonerated him, and with the power and influence Maciel wielded, they feared no one would believe them.
▪ Rosebery left the Tabernacle, reflecting as was his wont, and thinking of this vast power wielded by one man.
▪ But for some countries, it is about power and who wields it in the United Nations.
▪ This is the power they wield: the mortal importance of no one knowing they are there.
▪ People were afraid to talk to me, but I had no sense of the power that I wielded over their lives.
▪ Despite the power it wields, the baby is weeping.
▪ I think perhaps she linked his degree with the power he seemed to wield in the outside world.
stick
▪ Monroe doctrine lives on as Bush wields big stick.
▪ Shields fired when Kao, who was drunk, advanced at him wielding a stick, authorities said.
▪ Apart from wielding the stick of trade sanctions - a worrying measure - the main option will be the carrot of cash transfers.
sword
▪ He was wielding a samurai sword.
▪ Recently a Nomura executive suffered the indignity of being taken hostage by a client wielding a samurai sword.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
use/wield the big stick
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The man moved toward them, wielding a stick.
▪ The rioters faced police who were wielding clubs and batons.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And the more one knew, the more control one could wield over circumstance.
▪ But it is outside the Pru, in the City, where Newmarch's muscle is wielded to the most dramatic effect.
▪ He remained calm and imposing, a true Commander-in-Chief wielding sovereign authority.
▪ Houses have been invaded at night by machine-gun wielding thugs.
▪ In the chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lobbying group, she wields considerable influence in the Valley and beyond.
▪ Now a generation of southern Republicans, brought up resenting the interfering ways of the federal government, is wielding disproportionate power.
▪ Yet racial, national, and religious power blocs have always been integral to how power is wielded in this nation.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wield

Wield \Wield\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wielded; p. pr. & vb. n. Wielding.] [OE. welden to govern, to have power over, to possess, AS. geweldan, gewyldan, from wealdan; akin to OS. waldan, OFries. walda, G. walten, OHG. waltan, Icel. valda, Sw. v[*a]lla to occasion, to cause, Dan. volde, Goth. waldan to govern, rule, L. valere to be strong. Cf. Herald, Valiant.]

  1. To govern; to rule; to keep, or have in charge; also, to possess. [Obs.]

    When a strong armed man keepeth his house, all things that he wieldeth ben in peace.
    --Wyclif (Luke xi. 21).

    Wile [ne will] ye wield gold neither silver ne money in your girdles.
    --Wyclif (Matt. x. 9.)

  2. To direct or regulate by influence or authority; to manage; to control; to sway.

    The famous orators . . . whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democraty.
    --Milton.

    Her newborn power was wielded from the first by unprincipled and ambitions men.
    --De Quincey.

  3. To use with full command or power, as a thing not too heavy for the holder; to manage; to handle; hence, to use or employ; as, to wield a sword; to wield the scepter.

    Base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield!
    --Shak.

    Part wield their arms, part curb the foaming steed.
    --Milton.

    Nothing but the influence of a civilized power could induce a savage to wield a spade.
    --S. S. Smith.

    To wield the scepter, to govern with supreme command.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wield

Old English weldan (Mercian), wieldan, wealdan (West Saxon) "have power over, compel, tame, subdue" (class VII strong verb; past tense weold, past participle gewealden), merged with weak verb wyldan, both from Proto-Germanic *waldan "to rule" (cognates: Old Saxon and Gothic waldan, Old Frisian walda "to govern, rule," Old Norse valda "to rule, wield, to cause," Old High German waltan, German walten "to rule, govern").\n

\nThe Germanic words and cognates in Balto-Slavic (Old Church Slavonic vlado "to rule," vlasti "power," Russian vladeti "to reign, rule, possess, make use of," Lithuanian veldu "to rule, possess") probably are from PIE *woldh-, extended form of root *wal- "to be strong, to rule" (see valiant). Related: Wielded; wielding.\n

Wiktionary
wield

vb. 1 (label en obsolete) To command, rule over; to possess or own. 2 (label en obsolete) To control, to guide or manage. 3 To handle with skill and ease, especially of a weapon or tool. 4 To exercise (authority or influence) effectively.

WordNet
wield

  1. v. of power or authority [syn: exert, maintain]

  2. handle effectively; "The burglar wielded an axe" [syn: handle]

Wikipedia
Wield

Wield is a civil parish in Hampshire, England, within the district of East Hampshire. It includes two neighbouring villages, Upper Wield and Lower Wield.

The parish council meets quarterly at the parish hall in Upper Wield.

Wield as a civil parish is separate from the church parish. The parish church, dedicated to St James, is also in Upper Wield. It is mainly Norman, and is a Grade I listed building.

Usage examples of "wield".

Although the masses will flock to the Plan of Abraxas, those wielding power and money will not easily give up their privileges for the good of society.

In the seventeenth century, the absolutist reaction to the revolutionary forces of modernity celebrated the patrimonial monarchic state and wielded it as a weapon for its own purposes.

Serpent, that I have discovered a way to power vaster than anything Bel Adad, the pitiful Patter of Maqam Nifl and Borsippa, can wield!

I spared little time away from that book, and studied in it incessantly the ways and windings of magic, till I could hold communication with Genii, and wield charms to summon them, and utter spells that subdue them, discovering the haunts of talismans that enthral Afrites and are powerful among men.

After all, the Alaunt were hunting hounds and their master had wielded the Wolven.

He knew he could trust Ament to wield this most awesome of weapons wisely.

The tales of her Whitechapel origin, and heading mobs wielding bludgeons, are absolutely false, traceable to scandalizing anecdotists like Mr.

With an attending Animist, a Lemyri tribe could refuse to deal with anyone wielding or influenced by magic.

In contrast, the Council of the Apocrypha was a small, veiled and purposefully unrecorded papal body wielding an authority that easily rivaled that of the College, the cardinals of the Apocrypha suffered no dominion but that of God and were accountable only to His chosen representative on earth - the Holy Father.

A rare breed of Arcadian with the ability to wield magic effortlessly.

Armed by now, the shouting prisoners hurled themselves on the English who, falling back before the sobers, gun rammers, muskets and belaying pins wielded by these mud-caked figures, were pressed into a mob so dense as almost to prevent the use of weapons.

The squad moved like an inexorable wedge into the blockaded spaceport, wielding clubs and spears.

If such punishment were legal, Blu would be the first in line to volunteer to wield the tar brush.

WORD, created the World in its purity, is its Preserver and Judge, a Holy and Sacred Being, Intelligence and Knowledge, Himself Time without limit, and wielding all the powers of the Supreme Being.

You looked for no weapon of opposition but spit, poker, and basting ladle, wielded by unskilful hands: but, rascals, here is short sword and long cudgel in hands well tried in war, wherewith you shall be drilled into cullenders and beaten into mummy.