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Dryest vs Wryest - What's the difference?

dryest | wryest |

As adjectives the difference between dryest and wryest

is that dryest is (dry) while wryest is (wry).

dryest

English

Alternative forms

* driest

Adjective

(head)
  • (dry)

    • dry

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) drye, drie, dri, drige, dryge, . See also (l), (l), (l).

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Free from liquid or moisture.
  • * Addison
    • The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season.
  • * Prescott
    • Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
  • (chemistry) Free of water in any state; anhydrous.
  • Thirsty; needing drink.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Give the dry fool drink.
  • (of an alcoholic beverage) Lacking sugar or low in sugar; not sweet.
  • Maintaining temperance; void or abstinent from alcoholic beverages.
  • (of a person or joke) Subtly humorous, yet without mirth.
  • * (Washington Irving)
    • He was rather a dry , shrewd kind of body.
  • (of a scientist or his laboratory) Not working with chemical or biological matter, but, rather, doing computations.
  • (masonry) Built without mortar; dry-stone.
  • *
  • (of animals) Not giving milk.
  • Lacking interest or amusement; barren; unembellished.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
    • These epistles will become less dry , more susceptible of ornament.
  • (fine arts) Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or lacking delicate contours and soft transitions of colour.
    • Synonyms
    * (free from liquid or moisture) arid, parched
    Antonyms
    * (free from liquid or moisture) wet * (abstinent from alcohol) wet * wet
    Derived terms
    * bone dry * dry as a bone * dry as a dead dingo’s donger * dry cough * dry hole * dry ice * drily * dry run * dryly * dryness * dry spell * drywall * dry weight * like watching paint dry

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Verb

  • To lose moisture.
    • The clothes dried on the line.
  • To remove moisture from.
    • Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.
  • (ambitransitive, figurative) To cease or cause to cease.
    • Their sources of income dried up.
    The stream of chatter dried up.
    Derived terms
    * drier * dryer * dry out * dry up * nondrying
    See also
    * desiccant * desiccate * desiccation

    wryest

    English

    Alternative forms

    * wriest

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (wry)

    • wry

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) wrien, from (etyl) . Compare awry, wriggle.

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
  • * 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 17:
    • '"Why, you snivelling, wry -faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.
  • * 1913 , , The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park , ch. 11:
    • “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.
  • Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.
  • * 1871 , , The Haunted Baronet , ch. 6:
    • "[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."
  • Twisted, bent, crooked.
  • Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.
  • * 1820 , , The Abbot , ch. 34:
    • Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.
  • * 1876 , , The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor , vol. IV, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series: Dialogues of Literary Men, ch. 6—Milton and Andrew Marvel, p. 155 (Google preview):
    • . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.
    Derived terms
    * wryly * awry

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
  • * 1535 , , Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation , ch. 18:
    • God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.
  • * , Cymbeline , act 5, sc. 1:
    • You married ones,
    If each of you should take this course, how many
    Must murder wives much better than themselves
    For wrying but a little!
  • (obsolete) To divert; to cause to turn away.
  • To twist or contort (the body, face etc.).

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) wryen, wrien, wreon, wrihen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.