Awry'. adv. [from a and wry.]

1. Not in a strait direction; obliquely.

   But her sad eyes still fast'ned on the ground,
   Are governed with goodly modesty;
   That suffers not one look to glance awry,
   Which may let in a little thought unsound. Spens. Epithal.

   Like perspectives which rightly gaz'd upon,
   Shew nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,
   Distinguish form. Shakesp. Richard II.

                               When lo!
   A violent cross wind, from either coast,
   Blows them transverse; ten thousand leagues awry
   Into the devious air. Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ii.

2. Asquint; with oblique vision.

                         You know the king
   With jealous eyes has look'd awry
   On his son's actions. Denham's Sophy.

3. Not level; unevenly.

   I hap to step awry, where I see no path, and can discern but few steps afore me. Brerewood on Languages.

4. Not equally between two points.

   Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
   Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry,
   Ere felt such rage. Pope's Rape of the Lock.

5. Not in a right state; perversely.

   All awry, and which wried it to the most wry course of all, wit abused, rather to feign reason why it should be amiss, than how it should be amended. Sidney, b. ii.

   Much of the soul they talk, but all awry,
   And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves
   All glory arrogate, to God give none. Paradise Regained.