wry

[rahy] /raɪ/
adjective, wrier, wriest.
1.
produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features:
a wry grin.
2.
abnormally bent or turned to one side; twisted; crooked:
a wry mouth.
3.
devious in course or purpose; misdirected.
4.
contrary; perverse.
5.
distorted or perverted, as in meaning.
6.
bitterly or disdainfully ironic or amusing:
a wry remark.
Origin
1515-25; adj. use of wry to twist, Middle English wryen, Old English wrīgian to go, strive, tend, swerve; cognate with Dutch wrijgen to twist; akin to Old English wrigels, Latin rīcula veil, Greek rhoikós crooked
Related forms
wryly, adverb
wryness, noun
Synonyms
2. awry, askew.
Antonyms
2. straight.
Examples from the web for wry
  • Good company and good discourse are the wry sinews of virtue.
  • He's also an entertaining speaker with a wry sense of humor.
  • Other e-mails give rise to wry chuckles, which is where this list begins.
  • It is also brilliantly written: dense with wry descriptions of choice observations.
  • Several other speakers took similar tough-minded approaches, though none were so wry in delivery.
  • For some reason that wry comment from an old, experienced priest made the rest of the day easy.
  • Thirteen wry biographical essays about people, once famous, who have disappeared from memory.
  • Point being that out of all this pain came reams of incredibly wry, wacky, twisted stuff.
  • The quote is commonly recited for its wry pragmatism and seeming cynical irreverence.
  • He is clearly an erudite writer, gifted with rare insight and a wry sense of humor.
British Dictionary definitions for wry

wry

/raɪ/
adjective wrier, wriest, wryer, wryest
1.
twisted, contorted, or askew
2.
(of a facial expression) produced or characterized by contorting of the features, usually indicating dislike
3.
drily humorous; sardonic
4.
warped, misdirected, or perverse
5.
(of words, thoughts, etc) unsuitable or wrong
verb wries, wrying, wried
6.
(transitive) to twist or contort
Derived Forms
wryly, adverb
wryness, noun
Word Origin
C16: from dialect wry to twist, from Old English wrīgian to turn; related to Old Frisian wrīgia to bend, Old Norse riga to move, Middle Low German wrīch bent, stubborn
Word Origin and History for wry
adj.

1520s, "distorted, somewhat twisted," from obsolete verb wry "to contort, to twist or turn," from Old English wrigian "to turn, bend, move, go," from Proto-Germanic *wrig- (cf. Old Frisian wrigia "to bend," Middle Low German wrich "turned, twisted"), from PIE *wreik- "to turn" (cf. 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.