wry

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   bent to one side

   a wry neck

2. 2
   adj

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

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

3. 3
   adj

   Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.

   "[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."

4. 4
   adj

   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.

5. 5
   verb

   To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.

   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.

6. 6
   adj

   humorously sarcastic or mocking

7. 7
   adj

   Twisted, bent, crooked.

8. 8
   verb

   To divert; to cause to turn away.

Etymology

From Middle English wrien, from Old English wrīġian (“to go, turn, twist, bend, strive, struggle, press forward, endeavor, venture”), from Proto-Germanic *wrigōną (“to wriggle”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyḱ- (“to turn, wrap, tie”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”). Compare awry, wriggle.