Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use awry in a sentence

12 example sentences · adverb, adjective

Awry means obliquely, crookedly; askew. Example: “The frame was awry.”

Examples of awry by meaning

adjectiveTurned or twisted toward one side; crooked, distorted, out of place; wry.

  • The frame was awry.

adjectiveWrong or distorted; perverse, amiss, off course.

  • There is something awry with this story.
  • Pogba and Shaw combined before the left-back’s cross teed up the striker but his radar was awry.2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian

More sentences with awry

  • But something is awry; the fairy-stories, the mythologies, are mixed up.2009, Jan S. Cronin, Simone Drichel, Frameworks: Contemporary Criticism on Janet Frame, page 30. From the entry titania
  • I was always worried about Jesus’ harebrained schemes; something always seemed to go awry with them.1994, Jose Maria Lacambra, Rising Sun Blinking: A Young Boy’s Memoirs of the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines, Sinag-tala…. From the entry slingshoot
  • This was then referred to as wearing it Colley-Westonward, meaning awry.1978, Doreen Yarwood, Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Costume, London: B. T. Batsford, →ISBN, page 279. From the entry mandilion
  • A dish gone awry after adding the wrong ingredient.2017 March 3, Nintendo EPD, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, description for Rock-Hard Food. From the entry between a rock and a hard place
  • When their plans were going awry, Wattis soothed them by saying they were going to "play it pear-shaped" (ie it would all go smoothly).1999 December 11, “The town formerly known as Upton-cum-Chalvey”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2022. From the entry play it pear-shaped
  • Sometimes it almost seems that the writer takes a perverse delight in finding the times out of joint, finding everything awrack and awry.1969, Seven - Issues 1-8, page 20. From the entry awrack
  • There was old Tommy with his back to the dining-room door, his Glengarry awry on his tousled head, and his bandy legs stretched firmly apart.1913, Hall Caine, The woman thou gavest me. From the entry glengarry
  • Three times the Mexican gegenpress drew a scampering counterattack, whirring in on goal only to be foiled by a scudding last-ditch tackle or a last pass just awry.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The…. From the entry scudding
  • The yodel in it brought to mind incongruous images, full of holes as a Swiss cheese: among the alpenhorns and cuckoo clocks, cowbells clunked and donged like angeluses gone awry.1998, Ciaran Carson, Last Night's Fun: A Book About Irish Traditional Music, page 151. From the entry angelus

Meaning of awry

  1. adverb Obliquely, crookedly; askew.
  2. adverb Perversely, improperly.
  3. adjective Turned or twisted toward one side; crooked, distorted, out of place; wry.

Full definition of awry

Questions about awry in a sentence

How do you use awry in a sentence?
Awry is used as an adverb and adjective. For example: “The frame was awry.”
What is a short sentence with awry?
“The frame was awry.”
What does awry mean?
Awry means obliquely, crookedly; askew.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: awry (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use awry in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/awry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.