wry - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• IPA(key): /ɹaɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophone: rye

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.

wry (comparative wrier or wryer, superlative wriest or wryest)

1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 17, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
     '"Why, you snivelling, wry-faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.
   • 1913, Victor Appleton, “chapter 11”, in The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park:
     “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.
2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.
   Synonym: droll
   • 1871, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “chapter 6”, in The Haunted Baronet:
     "[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."
3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
4. Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.
   • 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:
     Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.
   • 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):
     . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.

• awry
• wry-billed plover
• wryly
• go awry

contorted

• Bulgarian: крив (bg) (kriv), изкривен (bg) (izkriven)
• Czech: pokřivený m, křivý (cs) m
• Dutch: verdraaid (nl), verwrongen (nl)
• Finnish: poispäin kääntynyt
• French: tordu (fr) m
• German: verdreht (de)
• Greek: στρεβλός (el) m (strevlós), λοξός (el) m (loxós)
• Hungarian: eltorzult (hu)
• Russian: искажённый (ru) m (iskažónnyj), скривившийся (ru) m (skrivivšijsja)
• Swedish: förvriden (sv), skev (sv)

twisted

• Bulgarian: извит (bg) (izvit)
• Czech: pokřivený, křivý (cs)
• Dutch: verdraaid (nl), verwrongen (nl)
• Finnish: kiero (fi), vääntynyt (fi)
• French: tordu (fr) m
• Galician: revirado, arrevesado
• German: verdreht (de), gewunden (de)
• Greek: στρεβλός (el) m (strevlós)
• Māori: koronuke, hapa, hape, kōiheihe, korotuke
• Romanian: răsucit (ro) m, sucit (ro) m
• Russian: искривлённый m (iskrivljónnyj)
• Woiwurrung: wy-drring

wry (third-person singular simple present wries, present participle wrying, simple past and past participle wried)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
   • 1535, Thomas More, chapter 18, in Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation:
     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.
   • 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]:
     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!
2. (obsolete, transitive) To divert; to cause to turn away.
3. (transitive) To twist or contort (the body, face, etc.).

to twist

• Bulgarian: извивам (bg) (izvivam), изкривявам (bg) (izkrivjavam)
• Dutch: wringen (nl), verwringen (nl), verdraaien (nl)
• Finnish: vääntää (fi)
• French: tordre (fr)
• Romanian: răsuci (ro)
• Russian: искажать (ru) (iskažatʹ)
• Swedish: förvrida (sv)
• Turkish:
  Ottoman Turkish: بورمق (burmak)

wry

1. (regional) Distortion.

From Middle English wryen, wrien, wreon, wrihen, from Old English wrēon (“to cover, clothe, envelop”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrīhan, from Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną (“to wrap, cover”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyḱ- (“to turn, wrap, tie”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”).

wry (third-person singular simple present wries, present participle wrying, simple past and past participle wried)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.