Definition of Wry

v. t.1.To cover.
Wrie you in that mantle.
- Chaucer.
a.1.
1.Turned to one side; twisted; distorted; as, a wry mouth.
2.Hence, deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place; as, wry words.
Not according to the wry rigor of our neighbors, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.
- Landor.
3.Wrested; perverted.
He . . . puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers.
- Atterbury.
Wry face
a distortion of the countenance indicating impatience, disgust, or discomfort; a grimace.
v. i.1.To twist; to writhe; to bend or wind.
2.To deviate from the right way; to go away or astray; to turn side; to swerve.
This Phebus gan awayward for to wryen.
- Chaucer.
How many
Must murder wives much better than themselves
For wrying but a little!
- Shak.
v. t.1.To twist; to distort; to writhe; to wrest; to vex.
[imp. & p. p. Wried; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrying.]
Guests by hundreds, not one caring
If the dear host's neck were wried.
- R. Browning.


Related Words

agee, agee-jawed, askance, askant, askew, askewgee, asquint, awry, catawampous, catawamptious, cockeyed, crooked, cynical, ironic, skew, skew-jawed, skewed, slaunchways, squinting, wamper-jawed, wrest, wring, yaw-ways

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