Put Through the Wringer

A teenager who stayed out past curfew and got bombarded with questions upon his return home might tell his friends the next day, "Boy, my dad really put me through the wringer last night."

Or perhaps not. The phrase is more likely to be spoken by someone of the older generation who actually remembers doing laundry using an old wringer washing machine. Unlike its modern descendants with their spin cycles that use centrifugal force to pull water out of the clothes in preparation for being spun dry in a dryer unit, back in the "olden days" a wringer was used to remove the water.

The wringer consisted of two rollers operated by a hand crank. The operator pulled a sopping wet item from the barrel washer and coaxed the garment between the rollers while simultaneously turning the crank to keep the rollers rolling. The garment came out stiff and strangely shaped on the other side, but after shaking out, it was ready to be hung on the clothesline. Because the wringer applied more pressure, it was preferable to hand-wringing. It took less manual energy and the garment dried faster.

Later, the electric wringer was invented. While that spared the operator more manual labor, there was the all too common danger of getting one's fingers or hand caught and excruciatingly crushed before the operator could turn off the machine. Hence the phrase, "put through the wringer."

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the British prefer the phrase "put through the mill." Apparently in their opinion, being crushed between mill stones is a more painful experience.