AWRY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does awry mean? 

• AWRY (adjective)
  The adjective AWRY has 2 senses:

1. turned or twisted toward one side

2. not functioning properly

  Familiarity information: AWRY used as an adjective is rare.

• AWRY (adverb)
  The adverb AWRY has 2 senses:

1. away from the correct or expected course

2. turned or twisted to one side

  Familiarity information: AWRY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AWRY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Turned or twisted toward one side

Synonyms:

askew; awry; cockeyed; lopsided; skew-whiff; wonky

Context example:

his wig was, as the British say, skew-whiff

Similar:

crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not functioning properly

Synonyms:

amiss; awry; haywire; wrong

Context example:

something is wrong with the engine

Similar:

malfunctioning; nonfunctional (not performing or able to perform its regular function)

• AWRY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Away from the correct or expected course

Synonyms:

amiss; awry

Context example:

something went badly amiss in the preparations

Sense 2

Meaning:

Turned or twisted to one side

Synonyms:

askew; awry; skew-whiff

Context example:

with his necktie twisted awry

 Context examples 

Scientists used human cells that resembled neurons and neurons from frogs to investigate how the change in FUS from liquid droplets to small gels process is regulated and what makes it go awry.

(Mechanism behind neuron death in motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia discovered, University of Cambridge)

Blood clotting is a lifesaver when you're bleeding, but gone awry, it causes heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems.

(How And Why Blood Clots Shrink, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

See how his chest heaves, and his dear feathers all awry—the little knight who would not have his lady mishandled.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My principles were never trained, Jane: they may have grown a little awry for want of attention.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Early one evening, struggling with a sonnet that twisted all awry the beauty and thought that trailed in glow and vapor through his brain, Martin was called to the telephone.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You see me now with my back like a camel and my ribs all awry, but there was a time when Corporal Henry Wood was the smartest man in the 117th Foot.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The inflammatory eye disorder autoimmune uveitis occurs when a person’s immune system goes awry, attacking proteins in the eye.

(In uveitis, bacteria in gut may instruct immune cells to attack the eye, NIH)

His fevered membranes and burnt stomach began to clamour for more and more of the scorching fluid; while his brain, thrust all awry by the unwonted stimulant, permitted him to go any length to obtain it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Please arrange your thoughts and let me know, in their due sequence, exactly what those events are which have sent you out unbrushed and unkempt, with dress boots and waistcoat buttoned awry, in search of advice and assistance.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It went from me with a shock, like a ball fired from a rifle: but the image of Agnes, outraged by so much as a thought of this red-headed animal's, remained in my mind when I looked at him, sitting all awry as if his mean soul griped his body, and made me giddy.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)