What's the difference between awry and wry?

Awry


Definition:

  • (adv. & a.) Turned or twisted toward one side; not in a straight or true direction, or position; out of the right course; distorted; obliquely; asquint; with oblique vision; as, to glance awry.
  • (adv. & a.) Aside from the line of truth, or right reason; unreasonable or unreasonably; perverse or perversely.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Hester also pledged that customers from other banks will be repaid for 'knock-on' costs after they were left out of pocket by an IT failure that sent 20m transactions awry.
  • (2) The Boaty McBoatface saga is not the first time online polls have gone awry.
  • (3) This is supposed to "empower" them and make it much easier for them to be held to account when budgets go awry, as they have a habit of doing in defence.
  • (4) In a more applied sense, such knowledge may also provide a rational approach to controlling metabolic disease syndromes related to adipogenesis gone awry such as obesity-associated diabetes and cachexia.
  • (5) Informing the patient about a procedure that went awry can help avoid unnecessary legal procedures.
  • (6) Unless the polls are seriously awry, that seems unlikely.
  • (7) Things looked promising when Blackpool began the season brightly and remained in the top four until November but then it started to go awry in December.
  • (8) 11.23am BST It looks like the Ukranian attempt to reassert control in Slavyansk has gone awry, with some troops going over to the pro-Russian side.
  • (9) Anthony Bosch – who choked back tears in court and said the clinic was a legitimate business gone awry – sought a more lenient term because of his cooperation in the investigation, but US District Judge Darrin Gayles refused.
  • (10) This found its personification in the disappointing Ross Barkley, whose burst from near his area before an awry pass was indicative of his contribution throughout.
  • (11) A subtle operational problem with most vapor stripping techniques is that the contents of the trap are consumed with one analysis; if anything goes awry, the analysis of that trapped sample cannot be repeated.
  • (12) If you study that history as I have, you’ll realize the stakes for Langley bosses are always highest when programs have gone awry or legacies hang in the balance.
  • (13) Sleep, a vital ingredient in life, is often taken for granted until something goes awry and sleep no longer comes easily.
  • (14) It was higher up the hierarchy where things went awry.
  • (15) In the cold war we were not contemplating how a cyber-attack might go awry.
  • (16) She had her first intimation that something was awry with the 20th century when she could no longer see the pistons driving the wheels on locomotives because, with the arrival of streamlining, they "had skirts on".
  • (17) Then things went awry, not only on the pitch, but on the Juve bench.
  • (18) Hull’s only creative outlet was Snodgrass and passes soon began to go awry for Mike Phelan’s side.
  • (19) When this carefully orchestrated and regulated cell control process goes awry because one or more of the proteins in the sequence has been altered by a mutated gene, the cell divides in an uncontrolled manner and malignancy results.
  • (20) 'In a musical sense, it seemed like all the good intentions had gone awry, very quickly.

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.