A. adj. 1. Of the features, neck, etc.: Abnormally deflected, bent or turned to one side; in a contorted state or form; distorted.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xi. 4 b/2. Henry Erle of Lancastre with the wrye necke, called Torte colle.
c. 1530. Crt. of Love, 1162. For they their members lakked, fote and hand, With visage wry and blind.
1542. Elyot, Miriones, men hauynge wry mouthes.
a. 1613. Overbury, Characters, Flatterer. Hee will halt or weare a wrie necke.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Horace, Art Poet., 52. With faire black eyes and haire, and a wry nose.
1663. Unfort. Usurper, I. iii. 6. In wry-neck’d Nero’s Court, a wry-neck was the mode.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4097/4. He likewise cures Hair Lips and Wry Necks.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, etc., 138. Some of the disqualifications for priest’s orders were … wry-noses [etc.].
1819. Rees’ Cycl., XXXVIII. s.v., A remedy for wry-necks.
1860. A. Leighton, Trad. Scot. Life, 224. The round cheek and wry lip, betokening his love of fun.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., i. Their dreadful stare could dart cramp, or rickets, or a wry mouth at any boy.
b. Temporarily twisted, contorted or writhed by reason or in manifestation of disrelish, disgust, or the like. Freq. in the phr. to make (draw, pull) a wry face or mouth (wry faces or mouths).
1598. R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Eunuch, IV. iv. Howe the hangman makes a wrie mouth.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. ii. The bitter bob in wit; the Reuerse in face or wry-mouth.
1611. [see WRY-FACED a.].
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 208. Causing … a certain Buffoon … to make wry-faces and show a thousand postures.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse (1708), Pref. Saints … with screw’d Faces and wry Mouths.
1712. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 17 June. Flap your hand, and make wry mouths yourself.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. x. With a wry face … [he] read aloud, as follows.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, V. i. [He] made a wry face, and returned it.
1783. [see WRIGGLING ppl. a. 2].
1802. Beddoes, Hygëia, III. 55. Hardly daring to draw a wry face at any thing offered them.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, viii. Making a variety of wry mouths indicative of anything but satisfaction.
1876. Miss Broughton, Joan, I. i. Physic to be quickly swallowed with wry face.
1884. Mrs. C. Praed, Zéro, xiii. Each guest drank, made a wry face, and called variously for sherry and seltzer, and cream.
c. Of a smile, etc.: Made with a twisting of the features expressing dislike or distaste; ‘twisted.’
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, xxvi. He only shook his head with a wry smile and declined a verbal answer.
1899. E. W. Hornung, Dead Men, xviii. He turned to me with a wry smile.
2. That has undergone twisting, contortion or deflexion; wrung out of shape; twisted, crooked, bent.
1552. Huloet, Wrye, or disfourmed, or out of fashion, distortus.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 6 b. The membre becommeth lame and wrye.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, viii. (1596), 113. Such … men … take dislike at any one wry plait of their garment.
a. 1613. Overbury, Characters, Wks. (1890), 50. Her wrie little finger bewraies carving.
1622. R. Preston, Godly Mans Inqvis., ii. 47. Peter was shent for walking with a wry foote to the Gospell.
1751. F. Coventry, Pompey the Little, II. xiii. 241. A wry Plait in the Sleeve of his Shirt.
1851. London Phil. Mag., Feb., 133. The two pairs of planes, into which the wry quadrilateral was divisible.
1880. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 79. The timbers of their huts lean to an upright in wry splinters.
transf. 1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Feb., 28. For Age and Winter accord full nie, This chill, that cold; this crooked, that wrye.
1776. Da Costa, Elem. Conchol., 211. The gutter or beak … bends or falls on the back, in a wry manner.
1895. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 Oct., 5/1. Their chanting in church is so wry that it makes you start.
b. Deflected from a straight course; inclined or turned to one side. Also in fig. context. Wry look, one expressive of displeasure or dislike. So wry twist (of the features).
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xviii. 330. I take to witnesse the happiest Courtiers that are, whether one wrye looke of their Prince do not sting them more at the heart, than [etc.].
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. ii. 712. As Tavy … among the woods doth wander, Losing himselfe in many a wry meander.
1615–6. Boys, Wks. (1630), 183. If he run in wrie-wayes and bye-wayes, the more his labour.
1719. Atterbury, Serm. (1734), II. 77. Every wry Step, by which he imagines himself to have declined from the Path of Duty.
1748. Cowper, Verses written at Bath, 28. Flatt’ning the stubborn clod, till cruel time,… on a wry step, Sever’d the strict cohesion.
1755. Johnson, Contortion,… twist; wry motion; flexure.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxx. Here he … said to the stranger with his wryest twist upon him, ‘Your commands.’
1864. C. Geikie, Life in Woods, v. 75. My eldest brother … had cast many wry looks at the thick logs.
1872. C. Gibbon, For the King, xxii. His features gave a wry twist.
fig. a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, Wks. 1922, II. 226. Sometimes to her newes of my selfe to tell I go about, but then is all my best Wry words, and stam’ring, or els doltishe dombe.
3. Of words, thoughts, etc.: Contrary to that which is right, fitting or just; aberrant, wrong; cross, ill-natured.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., II. iii. He’s one, I would not haue a wry thought darted against.
1643–5. Milton, Divorce, II. iii. Thus were [they] … wont to thinke, without any wry thoughts cast upon divine governance.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Josephus, Antiq., VIII. v. (1733), 220. All this together, might have aton’d for a wry word or two.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. iv. Which strange combination of ideas … produced more wry actions than all other sources of prejudice.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xv. Art thou not a hasty coxcomb, to pick up a wry word so wrathfully?
1856. G. H. Boker, Betrothal, I. i. Why this argument? I have heard ten thousand,… yet never Knew one wry notion straightened by them all.
1886. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxxxiii. Introd. In this psalm there is no wry word.
† b. Of persons: Perverse, cross. Obs.–1
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 190. With pure, thy self-thou-pure-wilt-show; And with the froward, wilt-be-wry.
c. Wrested; perverted; distorted.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. ii. 431. He was … Next Rectifier of wry Law.
1687. Atterbury, Answ. Consid. Spirit Luther, 3 (J.). We find him mangling and putting a wry sense upon Protestant Writers.
1896. Mrs. Caffyn, Quaker Grandmother, 290. Poor boy, he meant, what seemed to his wry mind, honestly towards you!
4. Marked or characterized by perversion, unfairness or injustice.
1561. Norton & Sackv., Gorboduc, I. i. My lordes, be playne, without all wrie respect Or poysonous craft to speake in pleasyng wise.
1593. Q. Eliz., Boeth., IV. pr. v. 89. When cheefely geayle, lawe & other tormentes … be turnd in wry sorte, & wickedest payne doo presse good men.
1851. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), VI. xlii. 29. By influence individuals of a class will be powerful here and there, under any system, however cross and wry.
B. adv. In an oblique manner, course, direction; awry.
1575. A. Fleming, Virg. Bucol., IV. 12. Vnto thee, O childe, ye ground … First offringes yuie wandring wrye [L. errantes hederas], in euerye place shall yeald.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. 1070. In these doubts much rather rest had I, Then with mine error draw my Reader ’wry. Ibid. (1614), Parl. Vertues Royall, 706. A fair Ship … wants … A skilfull Pilot,… That never wry shee sail.
1721. Bailey, Wry,… on one side, not straight.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., 169. It’s not very pleasant, when things all go wry.
C. Comb., as wry-eyed, -guided, -legged, -looked, -toothed; wry-blown; wry-set.
1593. in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), IV. 212. A seduced king,… and wry-guided kingdom.
1602. Withals’ Dict., 286/2. That is crooke-footed, or wry-legged.
1604. F. T., Case is Altered, C ij b. There was an old man,… stumpe-footed, wry-bodied, gagge-toothed, slandering-tongue.
1648. J. Quarles, Fons Lachrym., 34. There is no … wry-look’d enemy T’upbraid thy actions.
1845. Youatt, Dog, iv. 103. A small breed of wry-legged terriers.
1883. Longm. Mag., Aug., 381. The wry-eyed, spectacled schoolmaster.
1883. Stallybrass, trans. Grimm’s Teutonic Myth., III. 1075. Wry-toothed … beldams.
1897. H. N. Howard, Footsteps Proserpine, 16. The sea-brine beats on the wry-blown toft.
1905. A. T. Sheppard, Red Cravat, II. vii. 120. Their outlines … of twisted chimneys, wry-set doors.
b. Special combs.: wry-bill, the wry-billed plover (Anarhynchus frontalis), native to New Zealand; wry-billed a., having a bill deflected to one side (see prec.); † wry-neb, a curvirostral fossil animal; † wry-stroke fig. (see quot.); wry-tail, a deformity in poultry, characterized by deflexion of the tail to one side.
1896. Newton, Dict. Birds, 1053. *Wrybill, Anarhynchus frontalis, [is] one of the most singular birds known, peculiar to New Zealand.
1873. Sir W. L. Buller, Birds N. Z., 216. Anarhynchus frontalis, *Wry-billed Plover.
1889. Parker, Catal. N. Z. Exhib., 116 (Morris). The curious wry-billed plover … [is] the only bird … in which the bill is turned … to one side—the right.
1708. Phil. Trans., XXVI. 78. Curvirostra, the *Wry-neb.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., VI. vi. § 4. A Prior without a Posterior having none … after him to succeed in his place. We behold him only as the *wry-stroak given in by us out of courtesie, when the game was up before.
1880. L. Wright, Illustr. Bk. Poultry, 201. *Wry-tail … is in many cases owing to spinal causes, and in all such should be ruthlessly stamped out.
