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What is "wry"

Crossword clues for wry

wry
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wry
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a wry comment (=saying that something is bad in an amusing way)
▪ ‘Perhaps the food could be improved,’ was the wry comment of one prisoner.
a wry smilewritten (= when a situation is bad but also amusing)
▪ Guy’s mouth twisted into a wry smile.
wry humour (=when someone makes something seem both funny and sad)
▪ He wrote with wry humour about his time in a Turkish prison.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
face
▪ Leaning back, he began to reach for the packet of cigars, then made a wry face and changed his mind.
humour
▪ The deep voice was taunting, but there was a wry humour hidden somewhere beneath the laconic façade.
▪ And he retains the sense of wry humour which he reckons every newspaperman needs, if only to keep him sane.
▪ She relaxed and told Jay about her life, with the wry humour of a survivor.
▪ However, wry humour was not a quality I detected in the lady.
▪ Yet they are saved from sentimentality by the wry humour of both text and pictures.
▪ His artistic talent combines with a wry humour - a man on a toilet is hidden in each of the intricate drawings.
smile
▪ Little Nemo falling out of his bed at the end of every strip still brings a wry smile.
▪ Sometimes she gives her Dante a wry smile or a worried look as she leads him from Purgatory to Paradise.
▪ In spite of herself, Lisa smiled a wry smile.
▪ But former Elland Road favourite Eddie Gray could be forgiven a wry smile at today's free-spending ways.
▪ Growing older, she decided with a wry smile, had its advantages.
▪ Hearing her praises lavishly extolled, she gave a sad, wry smile and returned to Terry's room to clear up.
▪ That's the flneur, caught in the spotlight, blushing perhaps but with a wry smile playing around his lips.
▪ He listened patiently, with a wry smile.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a wry smile
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A dash of wry cynicism might have helped another woman, but that was not Franca's way.
▪ And he retains the sense of wry humour which he reckons every newspaperman needs, if only to keep him sane.
▪ In spite of herself, Lisa smiled a wry smile.
▪ Knowing this, Googol tried to be wry about his own feelings and eschewed any dandified garb such as Jaq now sported.
▪ Perhaps, to some extent, she thought with wry amusement, she owed her professional success to Jake.
▪ She relaxed and told Jay about her life, with the wry humour of a survivor.
▪ Somehow, he derived a strange, wry satisfaction from this thought.
▪ This is a delicious comedy full of wry observations and delightful fun-poking at the world of movie-making.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wry

Wry \Wry\, v. t. [AS. wre['o]n.] To cover. [Obs.]

Wrie you in that mantle.
--Chaucer.

Wry

Wry \Wry\, a. [Compar. Wrier; superl. Wriest.] [Akin to OE. wrien to twist, to bend, AS. wrigian to tend towards, to drive.]

  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.
    --Landor.

  3. Wrested; perverted.

    He . . . puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers.
    --Atterbury.

    Wry face, a distortion of the countenance indicating impatience, disgust, or discomfort; a grimace.

Wry

Wry \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.
    --Chaucer.

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

Wry

Wry \Wry\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wried; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrying.] [OE. wrien. See Wry,

  1. ] To twist; to distort; to writhe; to wrest; to vex.
    --Sir P. Sidney.

    Guests by hundreds, not one caring If the dear host's neck were wried.
    --R. Browning.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wry

1520s, "distorted, somewhat twisted to one side," from obsolete verb wry "to contort, to twist or turn," from Old English wrigian "to turn, bend, move, go," from Proto-Germanic *wrig- (cognates: Old Frisian wrigia "to bend," Middle Low German wrich "turned, twisted"), from PIE *wreik- "to turn" (cognates: Greek rhoikos "crooked," Lithuanian raisas "paralysed"), from root *wer- (3) "to turn, bend" (see versus). Of words, thoughts, etc., from 1590s. The original sense is preserved in awry.

Wiktionary
wry

Etymology 1

  1. 1 Turned away, contorted (of the face or body). 2 dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic. 3 twisted, bent, crooked. 4 deviate from the right direction; misdirected; out of place. v

  2. 1 (context obsolete intransitive English) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate. 2 (context obsolete transitive English) To divert; to cause to turn away. 3 (context transitive English) To twist or contort (the body, face et

  3. ). Etymology 2

    vb. (context transitive obsolete English) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

WordNet
wry

  1. adj. humorously sarcastic or mocking; "dry humor"; "an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely"; "an ironic novel"; "an ironical smile"; "with a wry Scottish wit" [syn: dry, ironic, ironical]

  2. bent to one side; "a wry neck"

  3. disdainfully or ironically humorous; scornful and mocking; "his rebellion is the bitter, sardonic laughter of all great satirists"- Frank Schoenberner; "a wry pleasure to be...reminded of all that one is missing"- Irwin Edman [syn: sardonic]

  4. [also: wried, wryest, wryer, wriest, wrier]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
WRY

WRY may refer to:

  • Westray Airport, Orkney, Scotland (IATA code)
  • West Riding of Yorkshire, England (Chapman code)

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Usage examples of "wry".

Club-feet, wry neck, spinal curvature, hip-joint disease, white swellings, and stiffened joints, are all readily amendable to the curative effects of motion administered by the manipulator and other machinery.

For some reason his wry ness released the cramp in her throat, and she met his gaze, areal grin appearing.

Boba Fett was in this game-Kuat of Kuat found some wry amusement in that datum.

Nastasya Filippovna cried, making a wry and displeased face, like a flighty, foolish little girl whose toy is being taken away.

A branch of girt and goodliness, straightway Her spring is turned on herself, and wried And knotted like some gall or veiney wen.

Whenever Keill thought about her, the picture that came to his mind was exactly what was happening now - Oni dashing ahead towards some new excitement, Keill following behind, usually with a wry smile.

This could not have been more at odds with his personality, for he had a far more wry outlook to life man just about any other Vulcan Selar could think of.

When Torma dropped at his feet, Kavan stared down at him, a wry smile on his face.

After half an hour of wry faces, I say that I feel much better, and thanking all my friends, I beg them to retire, which everyone does, wishing me a quiet sleep.

Through his big-rimmed spectacles, the withery jeweler recognized Cardona and gave a wry smile.

Then his smile faded into an even wrier frown, as the thoughts he had successfully avoided all day forced their way into his consciousness.

Globan remarked with a wry smile as he helped the yeowoman into the sick bay.

Unlike Barger, Frank had a wry sense of humor and a very sophisticated instinct for self-preservation.

He managed a wry grin, suddenly feeling marginally more in control with the infusion of a little humor into the situation.

Recalled with wry humour my own fury at Plex a couple of months back as I stood seeping synthetic body fluids in Tekitomura.