wry-mouthed, a.
(stress variable)
[f. wry a. 1. Cf. prec.]
1. Having a wry mouth.
| 1552 Huloet, Wrye mouthed men, miriones. 1604 F. T. Case is Altered C ij b, There was an old man..bleer-eied, wry-mouthed, botle nosed, lame-legged. 1616 T. Scot Philomythie A 6 b, They..wrie-mouth'd Plaice..did eate. 1618 Fletcher Women Pleased iii. ii, A pack of wry⁓mouth'd mackrel Ladies. 1653 R. Sanders Physiogn. 152 Looking asquint, wry-mouth'd, wry-neck'd. 1776 Da Costa Elem. Conchol. 210 Buccina Recurvirostra,.. Wry-mouthed Whelks. 1870 Rossetti Poems, Guido Cavalcanti xxii, That wry-mouthed minx. |
| fig. 1614 J. Taylor (Water-P.) Nipping Abuses L 4, The wri-mouth'd Crittick. 1620 Quarles Jonah 1487 Daring Presumption, wry-mouth'd Derision, Damned Apostacie. |
2. Marked or characterized by contortion of the mouth. Also
transf.| 1624 Quarles Sion's Elegies iii. 21 What flout, what wry⁓mouth'd scoffe,..Hath scap'd the furie of my Foemans tongue To doe my simple Innocencie wrong? 1635 ― Embl. v. v. 34 What soul would not be proud Of wry-mouth'd scorns? a 1699 J. Beaumont Psyche xiii. ccxxviii, What wry-mouth'd play They us'd, their gentle Savior to flout. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 145 A shaggy Tap'stry,..Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture Display'd the fates her confessors endure. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) VIII. 59 Lifting up her rolling eyes,..with a wry-mouthed earnestness. |