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Wry   /raɪ/   Listen
adjective
Wry  adj.  (compar. wryer or wrier; superl. wryest or wriest)  
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."
3.
Wrested; perverted. "He... puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers."
Wry face, a distortion of the countenance indicating impatience, disgust, or discomfort; a grimace.


verb
Wry  v. t.  To cover. (Obs.) "Wrie you in that mantle."


Wry  v. t.  (past & past part. wried; pres. part. wrying)  To twist; to distort; to writhe; to wrest; to vex. "Guests by hundreds, not one caring If the dear host's neck were wried."


Wry  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." "How many Must murder wives much better than themselves For wrying but a little!"





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Wry" Quotes from Famous Books



... these little chits would do so well. Ugh, how disagreeable it is!' And mamma took her dose with a wry face, feeling that Aunt Betsey was siding with the ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag • Louisa M. Alcott
... who had tried to dissuade him from his marriage) was now living; she told her that with their mistress's permission men and horses should be sent to help them in packing and moving. "And as for you, my love," added Kirillovna, twisting her cat-like lips into a wry smile, "there will always be a place for you with us and we shall be delighted if you stay with us till you are settled in a house of your own again. The great thing is not to lose heart. The Lord has given, the ...
— Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... take to their legs in terror. For how was it possible to believe that those large brown protuberant eyes in Silas Marner's pale face really saw nothing very distinctly that was not close to them, and not rather that their dreadful stare could dart cramp, or rickets, or a wry mouth at any boy who happened to be in the rear? They had, perhaps, heard their fathers and mothers hint that Silas Marner could cure folks' rheumatism if he had a mind, and add, still more darkly, that if ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot
... pack-horses. And another gun fired at ten o'clock meant "March." With all these guns, and a fourth at sundown, I saw an unhappy time ahead for my Indians. Truly, I think the sound makes them sick. They all pulled wry faces now, and I had my jest at their expense, ours being a most happy little family, so amiably did the Mohican and Oneidas foregather; and also, there being among them a Sagamore and a Chief of the noble Oneida clan, I could meet them on an equality of footing which infringed nothing on ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... Losberne received with many wry faces a proposal involving a delay of five whole days, he was fain to admit that no better course occurred to him just then; and as both Rose and Mrs. Maylie sided very strongly with Mr. Brownlow, that ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens


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