Category:Tortuous

Tor"tu*ous, a. Etym: [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.)

Defn: 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.