2 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Tortuous \Tor"tu*ous\, a. [OE. tortuos, L. tortuosus, fr tortus
a twisting, winding, fr torquere tortum to twist: cf F.
tortueux See Torture.]
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. Fig.: 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. [Obs.]
4. (Astrol.) Oblique; -- applied to the six signs of the
zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most
rapidly and obliquely. [Obs.] --Skeat.
Infortunate ascendent tortuous. --Chaucer.
--{Tor"tu*ous*ly}, adv -- {Tor"tu*ous*ness}, n.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
tortuousness
n : a tortuous and twisted shape or position; "they built a tree
house in the tortuosities of its boughs"; "the acrobat
performed incredible contortions" [syn: {tortuosity}, {torsion},
{contortion}, {crookedness}]
more about tortuousness
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