tor·tu·ous /ˈtɔrʧwəs, ˈtɔrʧə-/
(a.)扭曲的,彎曲的,囉唆的,欺騙的
tor·tu·ous /ˈtɔrʧ(ə)wəs/ 形容詞
(拉tortuosus)多彎拐的,扭曲的
Tor·tu·ous a.
1. Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, 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.]
Infortunate ascendent tortuous. --Chaucer.
--Tor*tu*ous*ly, adv. -- Tor*tu*ous*ness, n.
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tortuous
adj 1: highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure";
"convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning";
"intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of
refined phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a
knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine
maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir
Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous
negotiations lasting for months" [syn: Byzantine, convoluted,
intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, tangled]
2: marked by repeated turns and bends; "a tortuous road up the
mountain"; "winding roads are full of surprises"; "had to
steer the car down a twisty track" [syn: twisting, twisty,
winding]
3: not straightforward; "his tortuous reasoning"