Lexic.us

Definition of Tortuous

1. Adjective. Highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious. "Tortuous negotiations lasting for months"

2. Adjective. Marked by repeated turns and bends. "Had to steer the car down a twisty track"

3. Adjective. Not straightforward. "His tortuous reasoning"

Definition of Tortuous

1. a. Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; a tortuous train; a tortuous leaf or corolla.

Definition of Tortuous

1. Adjective. Twisted; having many turns; convoluted. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Tortuous

1. marked by repeated turns or bends [adj]

Medical Definition of Tortuous

1. 1. Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; a tortuous train; a tortuous leaf or corolla. "The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick." (Macaulay) 2. Deviating from rectitude; indirect; erroneous; deceitful. "That course became somewhat lesstortuous, when the battle of the Boyne had cowed the spirit of the Jakobites." (Macaulay) 3. Injurious: tortious. 4. Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely. "Infortunate ascendent tortuous." (Chaucer) Tor"tuously, Tor"tuousness. Origin: OE. Tortuos, L.tortuosus, fr.tortus a twisting, winding, fr. Torquere, tortum, to twist: cf. F. Tortueux. See Torture. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Tortuous

tortoiseshell cats tortoiseshell turtle tortoiseshells tortoni tortonis tortrices tortricid tortricid moth tortricids tortrix

tortrixes torts tortulous tortuosities tortuosity tortuous (current term) tortuous aorta tortuously tortuousness tortuousnesses

torturable torture torture chamber torture stake torture stakes tortured torturedly torturedness torturer torturers

Literary usage of Tortuous

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Inc. Merriam-Webster (1994)
"1955 • . . tormented with hunger and thirst —Nevil Shute, Most Secret, 1945 tortuous, torturous Commentators routinely warn against confusing these two ..."

2. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church by Augustine, John Chrysostom, Philip Schaff (1887)
"If the line of junction is tortuous the side of the region of light must also be tortuous; otherwise its straight side joined to a tortuous one would leave ..."

3. Proceedings by Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh (1883)
"The valleys now presenting so variable a bottom, the streams have been the more encouraged to work into tortuous courses full of persistent bends and the ..."

4. History of the United States of America, Under the Constitution by James Schouler (1913)
"His strange and tortuous course afterward, which led to open affront and opposition as a cabinet adviser to Johnson's 1 Men and Measures, 403, 404. ..."

5. The Rhine from Rotterdam to Constance: Handbook for Travellers by Karl Baedeker (Firm) (1906)
"... by Archbishop Baldwin of Trêves to command the castle, with the counts of which he carried on a protracted fend. In the narrow, tortuous valley of the ..."

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