wry

adj

1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).

   “'"Why, you snivelling, wry-faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.”

   ““Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.”

2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.

   “"[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."”

3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
4. Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.

   “Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.”

   “. . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.”

verb

1. (intransitive, obsolete)To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.

   “God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.”

   “You married ones, If each of you should take this course, how many Must murder wives much better than themselves For wrying but a little!”

2. (obsolete, transitive)To divert; to cause to turn away.
3. (transitive)To twist or contort (the body, face, etc.).
4. (obsolete, transitive)To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

noun

1. (regional)Distortion.