Dictionaries › English

wry

Pronunciation: /ɹaɪ/

The English word “wry” has 9 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
  2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or ironic, usually in a way that suggests acknowledgement of a problem or difficult situation.
  3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
  4. Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.

verb

  1. To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
  2. To divert; to cause to turn away.
  3. To twist or contort (the body, face, etc.).
  4. To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

noun

  1. Distortion.

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.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “wry” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.