• IPA: /əˈɡleɪ/, /əˈɡliː/

agley

1. (chiefly, Scotland) Wrong, awry, askew, amiss, or distortedly.
   • 1932, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110110200606/http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/lp-2001/page_rosewell.html Rosewell Page], The Iliads of the South: an epic of the War Between the States, Garrett and Massie, p. 165:

     X tells of cavalry; of Sheridan, Hampton and Fitz Lee;

     Of Early’s Valley march, that Sheridan long held agley!

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XII and XV”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855 ↗:

     “I don't know if you know the meaning of the word ‘agley’, Kipper, but that, to put it in a nutshell, is the way things have ganged.”

   • 2002, Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross, p. 29 ↗:

     We meant to sail from Charleston, but things went agley there, and so we’re bound for Portsmouth now, as fast as we can make speed.

agley

1. (Scotland) Wrong; askew.
   • 1983, Alasdair Gray, ‘The Great Bear Cult’, Canongate 2012 (Every Short Story 1951-2012), p. 57:

     But though the bear in the picture was a disguised man he appeared so naturally calm, so benignly strong, that beside him Pete […] looked comparatively shifty and agley.