Also 6 wrines, 7 -ness(e, wrynesse. [f. WRY a. + -NESS.]
1. The fact or condition of being wry or distorted; distortion, twisting.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Tortedad, crookednes, wrines, obliquitas.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 107. The waight of a groate thereof … helpeth the conuulsion and wrynesse of the mouth.
1616. Donne, Serm., Wks. 1839, V. 463. This is (tortuositas serpentis) the Wryness, the Knottiness, the Entangling of the Serpent.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xxxi. 256. A perversive Wriness and Convulsion of the Muscles.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., I. 35. A large Garden would be less pleasing … if it had … some visible wriness to disfigure it.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. iv. § 4. A bitter taste produces wryness and contortion of the mouth.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, ii. xxvi. The wryness of his face and the uneasiness of his limbs.
1898. Meredith, Later Alexandrian, Poems I. 200. An inspiration caught from dubious hues, Filled him, and mystic wrynesses he chased.
2. fig. Deviation from what is regular or normal; obliquity, wrongness.
1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., II. 498. Notwithstanding all this weaknesse, and wrinesse of these instances, the Rej. doth so triumph in them.
1648. W. Mountague, Devout Ess., I. xii. 143. An exploring the rectitude or wrynesse of their behaviours in this particular.
1906. Hardy, Dynasts, II. IV. v. The wryness of the times.
