Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

agley

American  
[uh-glee, uh-gley, uh-glahy] / əˈgli, əˈgleɪ, əˈglaɪ /
Or agly

adverb

Chiefly Scot.
  1. off the right line; awry; wrong.


agley British  
/ əˈɡliː, əˈɡliː, əˈɡleɪ, əˈɡlaɪ /

adverb

  1. awry; askew

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of agley

1775–85; a- 1 + gley glee 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

But, in pure common sense, his diagnosis of what went disastrously agley is spot on.

From The Guardian Feb. 24, 2013

At Ann Arbor, Mich, restless with the knowledge that something is agley in undergraduatedom, President Marion LeRoy Burton of Michigan University called to him Robert C. Angell of the Sociology Department.

From Time Magazine Archive

The plan goes agley when the documents, hand-carried to Sweden, are used instead to blackmail English industrialists.

From Time Magazine Archive

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, vacationing near Goose Prairie, Wash., who first sent agley the Army's well-laid plans for dispatching reluctant reservists off to war.

From Time Magazine Archive

Simon adjusted his wig, which had gang agley once more.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training