Dictionary Definition
awry adj
1 turned or twisted toward one side; "a...youth
with a gorgeous red necktie all awry"- G.K.Chesterton; "his wig
was, as the British say, skew-whiff" [syn: askew, awry(p), cockeyed, lopsided, wonky, skew-whiff]
2 not functioning properly; "something is amiss";
"has gone completely haywire"; "something is wrong with the engine"
[syn: amiss(p), awry(p), haywire, wrong(p)]
adv
1 away from the correct or expected course;
"something has gone awry in our plans"; "something went badly amiss
in the preparations" [syn: amiss]
2 turned or twisted to one side; "rugs lying
askew"; "with his necktie twisted awry" [syn: askew, skew-whiff]
User Contributed Dictionary
Pronunciation
- /əˈɹai/
- Rhymes: -aɪ
Adverb
- Obliquely, crookedly; askew.
- Perversely, improperly.
Translations
Perversely, improperly
- Russian: неправильно (n'eprávil'no), невернo (n'ev'érno), превратно (pr'evrátno)
Adjective
Translations
Turned or twisted toward one side
- Russian: кривой (krivój), искривлённый (iskrivlónnyj), косой (kosój), искажённый (iskažónnyj)
Wrong or distorted; perverse, amiss
- Russian: неправильный (n'eprávil'nyj), неверный (n'ev'érnyj), искажённый (iskažónnyj), превратный (pr'evrátnyj)
Usage notes
- As an adjective, awry is almost always used as a predicate adjective.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
aberrant, abroad, adrift, afield, agee, agee-jawed, all abroad, all
off, all wrong, amiss,
aside, askance, askant, askew, askewgee, aslant, asquint, astray, at fault, badly, beside the mark, cam, catawampous, catawamptious,
cock-a-hoop, cockeyed,
convulsed, corrupt, crooked, crookedly, deceptive, defective, delusive, deranged, deviant, deviational, deviative, disarranged, discomfited, discomposed, disconcerted, dislocated, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, distorted, disturbed, errant, erring, erroneous, erroneously, fallacious, false, faultful, faultily, faulty, flawed, haywire, heretical, heterodox, illogical, illusory, in disorder, misplaced, not right, not
true, obliquely,
off, off the track, on the
fritz, out, out of gear, out
of joint, out of kelter, out of kilter, out of order, out of place,
out of tune, out of whack, peccant, perturbed, perverse, perverted, roily, self-contradictory,
shuffled, skew, skew-jawed, skewed, slantways, slaunchways, squinting, straying, turbid, turbulent, unfactual, unfavorably, unorthodox, unproved, unsettled, untrue, untruly, upset, wamper-jawed, wide, wrong, wry, yaw-ways