TORTUOUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tortuous

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/tˈɔrtʃəwəs/ Listen

adjective

Tortuous adj.

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."

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."

Injurious: tortious. (Obs.)

(Astrol.) Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely. (Obs.) "Infortunate ascendent tortuous."

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Etymology of 'Tortuous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tortuous" Quotes from Famous Books

... But how tortuous she had been behind that outward pride of hers! For four years she had let him think he was the only man who really mattered in the world, and all the time quite clearly and definitely she had deceived him. She ...

— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... sign of water. And yet surely water must have made this bold cutting in the plateau. And if so, why is the lava sharp? My science gave out; but I could not but think it ominous and volcanic. The course of the stream was tortuous, but with a resultant direction a little by west of north; the sides the whole way exceeding steep, the expedition buried under fathoms of foliage. Presently water appeared in the bottom, a good quantity; perhaps thirty ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... through thirty-three miles of forest from York to Lake Simcoe. This shorter route to Lake Superior enabled the North-West Fur Company—established by Frobisher and McTavish, of Montreal, in 1776—to avoid canoeing up the Ottawa and its tortuous tributaries. The batteaux were brought up the St. Lawrence, breaking bulk at certain "carrying places," then under sail up Lake Ontario to York. From here the cargoes were hauled by horses over Yonge's military ...

— The Story of Isaac Brock - Hero, Defender and Saviour of Upper Canada, 1812 • Walter R. Nursey

... of which commanded the road leading down the pass, and the other the road up the valley from the direction of the village. The outer vault is large and roomy, and extends back into a lofty dome-shaped cavern about forty feet high, behind which a long tortuous vault extends for several hundred feet. The place is quite dry, and sufficiently spacious to accommodate a large number of persons; and there can be no doubt as to the uses to which it was applied during the wars ...

— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... rear; behind which was the office of the agent of the Associated Press. The plastering was about one-third gone from the ceiling. A small stove, used occasionally in the winter, was connected to the chimney by a tortuous pipe. The office was never cleaned. The switchboard for manipulating the wires was about thirty-four inches square. The brass connections on it were black with age and with the arcing effects of lightning, which, to young Edison, seemed particularly ...

— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

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