What's the difference between askew and wry?

Askew


Definition:

  • (adv. & a.) Awry; askance; asquint; oblique or obliquely; -- sometimes indicating scorn, or contempt, or entry.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After a visit to the camp in 1966, Joan Didion described Sandperl as a man who looked as if he had, "all his life, followed some imperceptibly but fatally askew rainbow" and the institute as naive.
  • (2) John Radcliffe, Richard Mead, Anthony Askew, David Pitcairn and Matthew Baillie.
  • (3) I ask people whom they’re voting for; several say Al Murray or Nigel Askew, “to split the vote”.
  • (4) Askew said it was uncertain what would happen after the change comes in.
  • (5) When he reads, he needs to look slightly to one side of the paper in order to focus; when speaking to an audience or into a camera lens, he must remember to correct what would normally be an automatic tendency to look slightly askew in order to see clearly with his good eye.
  • (6) Loosely adapted from Dostoyevsky's novella, Ayoade's follow-up to Submarine is an absurdist, timeless, placeless piece, European-influenced but with a very askew, British sense of humour, plus cameos from Chris Morris, Tim Key and Paddy Considine.
  • (7) The layered axisymmetric model presented by Askew and Mow (J. biomech.
  • (8) I shot him a middle finger and pedaled away, my right knee bleeding, my handlebars askew.
  • (9) For Askew’s clients completing on a second home or development opportunity ahead of April could mean saving in the region of £43,000, he said.
  • (10) Lespert's film ends with Yves stumbling on to the runway, mouth slumped askew, eyes lost behind his glasses, his movement unsteady and uncertain.
  • (11) *** Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nigel Farage (top, centre) and Ukip have targeted the South Thanet seat, where their rivals include (clockwise from top right) real pub landlord Nigel Askew for the Reality Party (led by former Happy Monday Bez; top, left), the Prophet Zebadiah of the Al-Zebabist Nation of Ooog, TV’s Pub Landlord Al Murray and Labour’s Will Scobie.
  • (12) Teymourian has a sight of goal from 20 yards but his radar is askew.
  • (13) You know, one of the ones where the local formal economy is so askew that supermarkets are full of fruit imported from Europe.
  • (14) Chris Askew, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "This is good news for patients because the Cancer Drugs Fund remains the only way they can access expensive but effective cancer treatments that Nice cannot approve.
  • (15) I think their judgment is askew but if they think I’m a threat to the Westminster establishment like Guy Fawkes, they are right.
  • (16) They get to live as human beings, while this — this is for pigs.” In Cando’s community, where shanties display identical wooden walls and shiny white iron roofs, his house sticks out, looking askew and incomplete.
  • (17) In central London, Cory Askew, the area director for estate agency Chestertons, said there had been “a huge rise in activity and offers” since the chancellor made the announcement in November.
  • (18) The PR firms coined the “Hopenhagen” slogan – a framing that went askew when the summit collapsed.
  • (19) In his place, the ghost of Radovan Karadžić, the former high priest of “ethnic cleansing” who had haunted the Balkans for a decade, rematerialised on a Belgrade roadside as a flustered old man, his straw hat askew, clutching a white plastic bag to his breast.
  • (20) Gary Cahill's chip did not appear to present a problem but Guy Demel contrived to create a big one, when his attempt to get the ball back to Jussi Jaaskelainen with his thigh went askew.

Wry


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cover.
  • (superl.) Turned to one side; twisted; distorted; as, a wry mouth.
  • (superl.) Hence, deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place; as, wry words.
  • (superl.) Wrested; perverted.
  • (v. i.) To twist; to writhe; to bend or wind.
  • (v. i.) To deviate from the right way; to go away or astray; to turn side; to swerve.
  • (a.) To twist; to distort; to writhe; to wrest; to vex.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When I commiserate about the overnight flight that brought them here, Linney gives a wry grimace.
  • (2) The image was widely shared online and taken as a wry comment on pictures of Donald Trump’s all-male Oval Office team.
  • (3) Putin could have been forgiven for allowing himself a wry grin, as another court comprehensively trashed Berezovsky's reputation.
  • (4) No wry observations or whoops-a-daisy trombones to subvert the conceit for period lolz.
  • (5) She frequently talks about herself as an object of wry or amused discovery.
  • (6) It was described as the "Twitter revolution" , but almost a year on from Iran's disputed presidential elections, during which the use of social media by the opposition movement made headlines around the world, such claims prompt wry smiles from seasoned observers.
  • (7) Enigmatic and elusive, they may have named themselves after the US video director because they enjoy his work, or it may be a wry comment on something or other.
  • (8) Franzen did seem to have a certain sense of humour about himself, and in person has a wry, awkward charm.
  • (9) Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India.
  • (10) The cover art for the Cranberries' Bury the Hatchet (1999) was an evocation of paranoia – a giant eye bearing down on a crouching figure – that did neither band nor artist many favours; his image for Muse's Black Holes and Revelations (2006) amounted to a thin revival of his work for the Floyd that, if you were being generous, suggested a wry comment on that band's unconvincing attempts to revive the excesses of 1970s progressive rock.
  • (11) He was a nice man, unpretentious and with a wry manner.
  • (12) The secretary of state also made a wry comparison between the bipartisan co-operation underpinning the new Afghan government and the polarised state of American domestic politics.
  • (13) But he is courteous, wry, insightful and very much on the left of his party.
  • (14) "I think I know what's to come," Chua says with a wry smile.
  • (15) "I don't think that Plaid Cymru can overturn world capitalism," she says, with a wry smile.
  • (16) "They were very happy," Wazir recalls with a wry smile.
  • (17) We are seeing a shift in the expansion of tree cover loss to a second tier of smaller countries that traditionally get much less attention from environmental groups.” He added: “These countries are recovering from years of civil conflicts that have made them off limits to investors who are now looking for opportunities – it is a new frontier of investments.” The WRI analysis suggests that a rapidly growing palm oil industry is one of the biggest contributors to the change.
  • (18) Guy Shrubsole, at Friends of the Earth, said of the WRI report: "This is a scary number of coal-fired plants being planned.
  • (19) The WRI report also found that, after a slight dip during the economic troubles of 2008, the global coal trade has rebounded and rose by 13% in 2010.
  • (20) But he is far from being a show-off: 'In fact, he comes over as a modest individual with a wry sense of humour', says a colleague.