Although it sounds like a sneeze, the word askew means lopsided or turned and tilted to the side. Like your glasses might be after, well, a sneeze. Anything askew is crooked. The word askew probably comes from Old Norse for "on a skew," or "to turn aside." No matter how you look at it, anything askew is at an angle.

Something that is askew is not straight or not level with what it should be level with. She stood there, hat askew. There were no shutters at the windows, and some of the doors hung askew. Synonyms: crooked, awry, oblique, lopsided More Synonyms of askew.

Wry means "twisted" — so going awry means getting "twisted up." Awry is similar to askew, which means "off, out of line." Though when you compare the roots skew, "turned at an angle" and wry, "twisted," you see the subtle difference between the two words.