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Wry vs Repartee - What's the difference?

wry | repartee |

As verbs the difference between wry and repartee

is that wry is to turn (away); to swerve or deviate while repartee is to reply with a repartee.

As an adjective wry

is turned away, contorted (of the face or body).

As a noun repartee is

a swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.

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.

    • repartee

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A swift, witty reply, especially one that is amusing.
  • * 1919 ,
    • A slight smile broke on his lips. ¶ "You are always prepared to sacrifice your principles for a repartee ," he answered.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick)
    • Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees , you never heard over your mahogany
  • A conversation marked by a series of witty retorts.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

  • To reply with a
  • * {{quote-book, year=1862, author=Various, section=Vol. 2 No 4, title=The Continental Monthly, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=Aubrey speaks of him as 'incomparable at reparteeing , the bull that was bayted, his witt beinge most sparkling, when most set on and provoked.' }}
  • To have a (conversation marked by repartees)
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=Gouverneur Morris, title=The Penalty, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=To see them together, friendly, reparteeing , chummy, would turn your stomach--Barbara so exquisite and high-born, and the man, his eyes full of evil fires, sitting like a great toad on the model's chair. }}

    Anagrams

    * *