wry

comparative wrier · comparative wryer · superlative wriest · superlative wryest

1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).

   “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.

   1913, Victor Appleton, “chapter 11”, in The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park

   1 more example

   '"Why, you snivelling, wry-faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 17, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or ironic, usually in a way that suggests acknowledgement of a problem or difficult situation.

   "[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."

   1871, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “chapter 6”, in The Haunted Baronet

   Synonyms: droll

3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
4. Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.

   Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.

   1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XXXIV, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 218

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   . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.

   1876, Walter Savage Landor, The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor, volume IV, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series: Dialogues of Literary Men, ch. 6—Milton and Andrew Marvel, page 155 (Google preview)

present singular third person wries · participle present wrying · participle past wried · past wried

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo turn (away); to swerve or deviate.

   You married ones, If each of you should take this course, how many Must murder wives much better than themselves For wrying but a little!

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

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   God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.

   1535, Thomas More, chapter 18, in Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation

2. obsoletetransitiveTo divert; to cause to turn away.
3. transitiveTo twist or contort (the body, face, etc.).

1. regionalDistortion.

present singular third person wries · participle present wrying · participle past wried · past wried

1. obsoletetransitiveTo cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.