Awry

Definition: Awry

Awry

Adjective

1. Turned or twisted toward one side; "a...youth with a gorgeous red necktie all awry"- G.K.Chesterton.

2. Not functioning properly; "something is amiss"; "has gone completely haywire"; "the telephone is out of order"; "what's the matter with your vacuum cleaner?"; "something is wrong with the engine".

Adverb

1. Away from the correct or expected course; "something has gone awry in our plans"; "something went badly amiss in the preparations".

2. Turned or twisted to one side; "rugs lying askew"; "with his necktie twisted awry".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "awry" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references)

Note: Awry \A*wry"\, adverb & adjective. [Prefix a- + wry.]. (references)

Synonyms: Awry

Distortion

Adjective: distorted; Verb: out of shape, irregular, asymmetric, unsymmetric, awry, wry, askew, crooked; not true, not straight; on one side, crump, deformed; harelipped; misshapen, misbegotten; misproportioned, ill proportioned; ill-made; grotesque, monstrous, crooked as a ram's horn; camel backed, hump backed, hunch backed, bunch backed, crook backed; bandy; bandy legged, bow legged; bow kneed, knock kneed; splay footed, club footed; round shouldered; snub nosed; curtailed of one's fair proportions; stumpy; (short); gaunt; (thin); bloated; scalene; simous; taliped, talipedic.

Evil

Adjective: disastrous, bad; awry, out of joint; disadvantageous.

Crosswords: Awry

Books

• Caduceus Awry (reference)

• Good Intentions Gone Awry (reference)

• King Energy: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial Empire Gone Awry (reference)

• Photo Oops: 101 Photo Opportunities Gone Horribly Awry (reference)

• The New Russia : Transition Gone Awry (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Gone Awry (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Oops!!! Buoy pulled under by strong currents under Golden Gate Bridge In spite of the best laid plans, sometimes things go awry Photo #1 of sequence. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Health

Scientists are investigating these and other possibilities to find why the immune system goes awry in Guillain-Barrè syndrome and other autoimmune diseases. (references)

Sometimes, metabolic processes go awry and by-products such as tangles and plaques build up inside and outside of cells and prevent them from working efficiently. (references)

When these neurons are stimulated by glutamate--even normal amounts of glutamate--their regular mechanisms go awry and they are flooded by calcium, with deadly consequences. (references)

Human Rights

Ghana

Many credible sources report that private citizens pay the police to arrest business associates in deals gone awry. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expressions using "awry": go awry ♦ look awry ♦ make awry ♦ take awry ♦ take smth. awry ♦ turn awry ♦ went awry. Additional references.

Albanian

shtrembër (askew, asquint, atilt), mbrapsht (around, astern, back, backwards, in reverse, inside out, rearward), keq (bad, badly, downhill, foul, miserable, nasty, poor, poorly), i shtrembër (bandy, crooked, lopsided, misshapen, skew). (various references)

Arabic 

‏منحرف (askew, aslant, bent, deflector, depraved, devious, errant, inclined, oblique, perverse, skew, slant, slanted, slanting, tilted), ‏موروب (biased, thwart), ‏مائل (atilt, bent, bevel, bias, cock eyed, diagonal, inclined, oblique, sidelong, skew, slant, slanted, slantwise, slope, sloping, stooping, thwart, titled), ‏صرف من الخدمة (bird, discharge, removal, sack), ‏إخفقت, ‏أعوج (askew), ‏بانحراف. (various references)

Bulgarian 

криво (aslant, ill), крив (bandy, hooked, squinting, wry), косо (cockeye, obliquely, sidewards, sideways, slantways, slantwise), встрани, неправилно (foul, incorrectly, mis-, mistakenly, untruly, wrong, wrongly), неправилен (abnormal, anomalous, defective, erroneous, false, faulty, improper, incorrect, injudicious, irregular, lame, mis-, mistaken, unequal, unfair, untrue, vicious, wrongful), настрани (edgeways, sotto voce), накриво (acock, askew, aslant, asquint, athwart, criss cross, haywire), наопаки (backwards, contra, contrariwise, criss cross, inside out, topsy turvy, upside down), погрешен (erroneous, false, faulty, illegitimate, improper, inaccurate, incorrect, mis-, misguided, mistaken, off beat, perverse, unsound, untrue, vicious, wonky, wrong, wrongful), изкривен (cockeyed, crooked, curved, hooked, lop-sided, skew, squinting, tortuous, wry). (various references)

Chinese 

偏差 (deviance, Deviation). (various references)

Czech

nakřivo (askew, aslant), šikmo (askew, slantwise). (various references)

Farsi 

منحرف (Aberrant, Amiss, Astray, Deviant, Devious, Hellbent, Lost, Oblique, Perverse, Pervert, Skew), چپ چپ (Askance, Askew), کج (Askance, Askew, Crank, Crump, Devious, Gauche, Indirect, Lopsided, Sidelong, Sinister, Slant, Snafu, Thwart, Wry), غلط (Amiss, Erroneous, Error, False, Foul, Inaccuracy, Inaccurate, Incorrect, Phony, Unsound), زشت (Awkward, Backhand, Bad, Bawdy, Black, Execrable, Gash, Gross, Hank, Heinous, Hideous, Homely, Horrid, Invidious, Maladroit, Nefarious, Offensive, Ugly, Uncouth, Unfavorable, Ungainly, Ungraceful, Unhandsome), بطورمایل (Aslant), بدشکل (Malformed). (various references)

Finnish

riippua viistossa (hang awry). (various references)

French

de travers. (various references)

German

krumm (bandy, bent, crooked, curved, hooked, hunched, warped, wrily, wry). (various references)

Greek 

στραβά (amiss, askew). (various references)

Hebrew 

מעוקם (bent, crooked, curved, twisted), �'חון (abdomen, belly, bent, bottom). (various references)

Hungarian

fonák (anomalous, backhand stroke, perverse), ferde (aslope, beveled, bias, biased, biassed, cant, cock eyed, cockeyed, cross, leaning, oblique, out of the straigh, perverse, sideling, sidelong, skew, slant, slanting, splay), fonákul, ferdén (askance, askew, aslant, aslope, athwart, crookedly, diagonally, on the bias, on the skew, on the slant, slantwise, thwart). (various references)

Indonesian

serba salah, miring (askew, aslant, bias, cant, careen, crazy, oblique, slanting, sloping, wry), genyot (askew), erang-erot (askew, zig-zag). (various references)

Italian

storto (angled, askew, bandy, crooked, dippy, skew, skews, wry, wryly), di traverso (Amiss, askance, askew, athwart, edgeways). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

食違う (to clash, to cross each other, to differ, to go awry, to run counter to), 食い違う (to clash, to cross each other, to differ, to go awry, to run counter to). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

くいちがう (to clash, to cross each other, to differ, to go awry, to run counter to). (various references)

Manx

fragym. (various references)

Norwegian

forkjært. (various references)

Pig Latin

awryay.(various references)

Portuguese

torto (askew, cambered, criss-cross, crooked, lopsided, tortile, wry), obliquamente (across, aslant, sideward, sidewards), oblíquo (aslant, aslope, asquint, canted, sideling, sidelong, skew, slanting, sloping, wry), errado (amiss, incorrect, wrong), erradamente (mistakenly), de viés. (various references)

Romanian

alandala (helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, promiscuous, wrong), strâmb (askew, aslant, cock eyed, crooked, crookedly, curved, lop-sided, slanting, slantwise, wrong, wry), rãu (Amiss, atrocious, awkward, bad, bad for, bad-hearted, badly, baleful, black, bum, corrupt, depraved, evil, flagitious, foul, haggish, harm, ill, immoral, lousy, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, mischief, mischievous, miserable, naughty, perverse, rough, scoundrel, sickness, thin, unspeakable, useless, venomous, vicious, vile, wicked, wretched, wrong), pieziş (askew, aslant, asquint, hostile, oblique, obliquely, scowling, slanting, splay, wry), greşit (abroad, Amiss, astray, bad, badly, erroneous, erroneously, fallacious, false, faultily, faulty, incorrect, misled, mistaken, out of square, perverse, spurious, unfair, unjust, unlawful, vicious, wrong, wrongheaded), chiorâş (askance, askant, askew, asquint, squint), într-o parte (acock, aside, crabwise). (various references)

Russian 

набок. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

naopako (topsy turvy, upside down), krivo (aslant, wrongfully), kriv (bandy, blameworthy, crooked, culpable, curved, guilty, leaning, wry), kos (bevel, lop-sided, oblique, ousel, ouzel, skew, slant, slantindicular, slanting, slantwise, sloping, traverse). (various references)

Spanish

torcido (askew, bent, crooked, distorted, furious, kinky, strained, turned, wry), torcidamente, desviado (aberrated, deflected, detour, deviant, devious, remote, turned), desviadamente, de través (abeam, athwart). (various references)

Swedish

på sned (askew, aslant, on a slant, on one side, sideways, slantways, slantwise). (various references)

Thai

บิ�"เบี้ยว, ผิ�"พลา�". (various references)

Turkish

yan (ancillary, aslant, asquint, by-, bye-, collateral, flank, flanking, lateral, parietal, side, sidelong, sideward, subordinate), ters (acrimonious, adverse, agley, Amiss, awkward, backward, backwards, bad tempered, bloody minded, churlish, contradictory, contrary, converse, counter, crabbed, cranky, curt, cussed, dour, face down, fractious, fretful, Froward, frowning, grumpy, ill natured, illegitimate, indecorous, inimical, inverse, inversely, inverted, mis-, negative, off, opposing, opposite, perverse, retro-, reverse, snuffy, sub-, unfavorable, unfavourable, upside down, versed, wayward, wrong, wrongly), eğri (aslant, aslope, bent, cambered, cockeyed, crooked, curve, graph, oblique, out of the straight, sinuous, skew, skewed, slanting, sloping, slouching, slouchy, tortuous, trajectory, untrue, warped, wry), çarpık (agley, askew, cockeyed, crooked, curved, irregular, paralysed, skew, warped, wry). (various references)

Ukrainian

спотворений (anamorphous, cam, deformed, distorted, misshapen, putrid, strained, truncated), кривий (bandy, bent, cam, cripple, crook, crooked, gammy, lame, wry), косо (askance, askew, aslant, aslope, athwart, obliquely, sidelong, sideway, sideways, sidewise, slant, slantwise, splay), косий (askew, bevel, boss-eyed, cock eyed, cockeyed, cross-eyed, diagonal, oblique, sidelong, sideway, sideways, sidewise, skew, slant, slanting, splay), невдало (naughtily), невдалий (abortive, bad, failed, ineffectual, infelicitous, lame, nasty, naughty, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, wide), неправильно (abnormally, crosswise, improperly, incorrectly, out-of-truth, unduly, wrong), неправильний (anomalous, bad, barbarous, illegitimate, improper, incorrect, irregular, unequal, unfair, unlawful, untrue, wrong, wrongful), недобре, набік (slant). (various references)

Welsh

ar letraws (askew), o chwith, lletbai (askew, oblique). (various references)

perversa, perversae, perversarum, perverse, perversi, perverso, perversorum, perversus. (various references)

Derivations

Words ending with "awry": outlawry. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Awry" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acry, agry, anry, anwry, apry, Arry, arway, arwe, ary, awarey, Awdrey, awey, awnry, Awori, awr, awray, awre, awrit, awrp, Awwrr, dawry, Dawtry, gawry, Harway, Mawrey, mawry, tawry, wairy, warey, warie, Waryn, waury. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: wary.

-1 letter: raw, ray, rya, war, way, wry, yar, yaw.

-2 letters: ar, aw, ay, ya.

+1 letter: rawly, warty, weary.

+2 letters: airway, arrowy, aweary, bawdry, bewray, brawly, brawny, crawly, drawly, lawyer, psywar, runway, sawyer, strawy, swarty, swayer, tawdry, unwary, wafery, warily, warmly, wastry, watery, wavery, wrathy, yarrow, yawner, yawper.

+3 letters: airways, archway, areaway, beweary, bewrays, caraway, daywork, doorway, drywall, eyewear, fairway, faraway, freeway, hayward, haywire, lawyers, marrowy, parkway, partway, psywars, raceway, railway, roadway, rollway, ropeway, runaway, runways, sawyers, scrawly, scrawny, skyward, sprawly, swarthy, swayers, thruway, tramway, trawley, unweary, waggery, wastery, wayward, wayworn, wearily, whipray, wireway, workday, wreathy, yarrows, yawners, yawpers.