awry
/əˈɹaɪ/ adverb, adjective
- adverb Obliquely, crookedly; askew.
- adverb Perversely, improperly.
- adjective Turned or twisted toward one side; crooked, distorted, out of place; wry. “The frame was awry.”
- adjective (figurative) Wrong or distorted; perverse, amiss, off course “There is something awry with this story.”
Synonyms
wonky askew cockeyed lopsided skew-whiff amiss haywire wrong
Etymology
From Middle English awry, awrie. By surface analysis, a- + wry.
Webster’s 1913
- adverb 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. "Your crown's awry." Shak.
- adverb Aside from the line of truth, or right reason; unreasonable or unreasonably; perverse or perversely.
Etymology [Pref. a- + wry.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “awry”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details