wry-necked
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of wry-necked
First recorded in 1590–1600
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.
I have seen enough of those wry-necked favourites of heaven at Constantinople.
From Romola by George Eliot
This table was set out with wry-necked gourds; deformities of calabashes; and shapeless trenchers, dug out of knotty woods.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville
Three or four couple was dancin', but none o' them was wry-necked enough to get the proper pose.
From Gullible's Travels, Etc. by Ring Lardner
This John—Sansterre, Landlos, Lackland, so they variously called him—was a timid copy of his brother, a wry-necked reedy Richard with a sniff.
From The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Maurice Henry Hewlett
Beyond, in the sun, butterflies flitted among the flowers, cockchafers heavily droned and blundered, a white peacock strutted, and at the water's edge two long-legged, wry-necked flamingoes stood motionless, like sentinels.
From The Lady Paramount by Henry Harland
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
