a. (Stress variable.) [f. WRY a. 1. Cf. prec.]

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  1.  Having a wry mouth.

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1552.  Huloet, Wrye mouthed men, miriones.

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1604.  F. T., Case is Altered, C ij b. There was an old man … bleer-eied, wry-mouthed, botle nosed, lame-legged.

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1616.  T. Scot, Philomythie, A 6 b. They … wrie-mouth’d Plaice … did eate.

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1618.  Fletcher, Women Pleased, III. ii. A pack of wry-mouth’d mackrel Ladies.

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1653.  R. Sanders, Physiogn., 152. Looking asquint, wry-mouth’d, wry-neck’d.

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1776.  Da Costa, Elem. Conchol., 210. Buccina Recurvirostra,… Wry-mouthed Whelks.

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1870.  Rossetti, Poems, Guido Cavalcanti, xxii. That wry-mouthed minx.

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  fig.  1614.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Nipping Abuses, L 4. The wri-mouth’d Crittick.

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1620.  Quarles, Jonah, 1487. Daring Presumption, wry-mouth’d Derision, Damned Apostacie.

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  2.  Marked or characterized by contortion of the mouth. Also transf.

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1624.  Quarles, Sion’s Elegies, iii. 21. What flout, what wry-mouth’d scoffe,… Hath scap’d the furie of my Foemans tongue To doe my simple Innocencie wrong? Ibid. (1635), Embl., V. v. 34. What soul would not be proud Of wry-mouth’d scorns?

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a. 1699.  J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIII. ccxxviii. What wry-mouth’d play They us’d, their gentle Savior to flout.

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1728.  Pope, Dunc., II. 145. A shaggy Tap’stry,… Instructive work! whose wry-mouth’d portraiture Display’d the fates her confessors endure.

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1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1768), VIII. 59. Lifting up her rolling eyes,… with a wry-mouthed earnestness.

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