wry

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹaɪ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophone: rye

Etymology 1

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.

Adjective

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.
   • 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.

Derived terms

• awry
• wryly
• go awry

Translations

Verb

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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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.).

Translations

Noun

wry

1. (regional) Distortion.

Etymology 2

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”).

Verb

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.