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 consi...