Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a wiry manner; like wire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a wiry manner.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wiry +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • He was only fourteen years old, slightly and wirily built; but his life had been lived among the mountains, his father had taught him no small measure of "sailoring," and he was not particularly afraid of heights.

    The Banks of the Sacramento 2010

  • He watched the bristles shining wirily in the weak light as she tipped three times and licked lightly.

    Ulysses 2003

  • It was a shock to find something very like the old excitement singing wirily in the air of the Javelin again, like sympathetic vibrations in the taut strings of some invisible harp.

    And all the Stars a Stage Blish, James 1960

  • The bare arms, executed with machine-like precision, flowed wirily from shoulders to clasped hands.

    Died in the Wool Marsh, Ngaio, 1895-1982 1945

  • At last they stopped for lunch, choosing a spot where a hedge rose wirily against the midday sky, and spread the rugs on the frozen grass.

    The Happy Foreigner Enid Bagnold 1935

  • He came off the hill one evening in the middle of June to find a canoe drawn up on the beach, two Siwashes puttering over a camp fire, and a tall, wirily slender, fair-haired man who might have been anywhere between twenty-seven and thirty-five sitting in the front doorway, talking to Doris.

    The Hidden Places Bertrand W. Sinclair 1926

  • He was only fourteen years old, slightly and wirily built; but his life had been lived among the mountains, his father had taught him no small measure of "sailoring," and he was not particularly afraid of heights.

    The Banks of the Sacramento 1922

  • He watched the bristles shining wirily in the weak light as she tipped three times and licked lightly.

    Ulysses James Joyce 1911

  • Wherefore, Link had grown to a wirily weedy and slouching manhood, almost as ignorant of the world beyond his mountain walls as were any of his own "critters."

    His Dog Albert Payson Terhune 1907

  • He was only fourteen years old, slightly and wirily built; but his life had been lived among the mountains, his father had taught him no small measure of

    The Banks of the Sacramento 1904

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