tortuous

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: tor=tu=ous

CIDE DICTIONARY

tortuous, a. [OE. tortuos, L. tortuosus, fr. tortus a twisting, winding, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist: cf. F. tortueux. See Torture.].

•  Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; a tortuous leaf or corolla.  [1913 Webster]

  "The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick."  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: Deviating from rectitude; indirect; erroneous; deceitful.  [1913 Webster]

  "That course became somewhat lesstortuous, when the battle of the Boyne had cowed the spirit of the Jakobites."  [1913 Webster]
•  Injurious: tortious.  [1913 Webster]
•  Oblique; -- applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely.  Skeat.  [1913 Webster]

  "Infortunate ascendent tortuous."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tortuous, adj.
1 full of twists and turns (followed a tortuous route).
2 devious, circuitous, crooked (has a tortuous mind).

Derivative

tortuosity n. (pl. -ies). tortuously adv. tortuousness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L tortuosus f. tortus a twist (as TORT)

THESAURUS

tortuous

Gongoresque, Johnsonian, affected, ambagious, ambiguous, anamorphous, anfractuous, askew, asymmetric, bedizened, bent, big-sounding, billowing, billowy, bowed, circuitous, circumlocutory, cockeyed, complicated, contorted, convoluted, convolutional, cranky, crazy, crooked, crumpled, crunched, curled, curling, curvaceous, curvate, curvated, curve, curved, curvesome, curviform, curvilineal, curvilinear, curving, curvy, deceptive, declamatory, deviative, devious, distorted, elevated, euphuistic, flamboyant, flaming, flashy, flaunting, flexuose, flexuous, fulsome, garish, gaudy, geosynclinal, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant, high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-sounding, highfalutin, incurvate, incurvated, incurved, incurving, indirect, inkhorn, intricate, involute, involuted, involutional, involved, irregular, labyrinthine, lexiphanic, lofty, lopsided, lurid, magniloquent, mazy, meandering, meandrous, meretricious, misleading, nonsymmetric, one-sided, orotund, ostentatious, overdone, overelaborate, overinvolved, overwrought, pedantic, pompous, pretentious, recurvate, recurvated, recurved, recurving, rhetorical, rivose, rivulose, roundabout, ruffled, sensational, sensationalistic, sententious, serpentine, showy, sinuate, sinuose, sinuous, snaky, sonorous, sprung, stilted, tall, torsional, tortile, tricky, turning, twisted, twisting, twisty, undulant, unstraightforward, unsymmetric, wandering, warped, wavy, whorled, winding, wreathlike, wreathy, zigzag

ROGET THESAURUS

tortuous

Convolution

N convolution, winding, convolution, involution, circumvolution, wave, undulation, tortuosity, anfractuosity, sinuosity, sinuation, meandering, circuit, circumbendibus, twist, twirl, windings and turnings, ambages, torsion, inosculation, reticulation, rivulation, roughness, coil, roll, curl, buckle, spiral, helix, corkscrew, worm, volute, rundle, tendril, scollop, scallop, escalop, kink, ammonite, snakestone, serpent, eel, maze, labyrinth, knot, convoluted, winding, twisted, tortile, tortive, wavy, undated, undulatory, circling, snaky, snake-like, serpentine, serpent, anguill, vermiform, vermicular, mazy, tortuous, sinuous, flexuous, anfractuous, reclivate, rivulose, scolecoid, sigmoid, sigmoidal, spiriferous, spiroid, involved, intricate, complicated, perplexed, labyrinth, labyrinthic, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, peristaltic, daedalian, kinky, knotted, wreathy, frizzly, crepe, buckled, raveled, spiral, coiled, helical, cochleate, cochleous, screw-shaped, turbinated, turbiniform, in and out, round and round, a can of worms, Gordian knot.

Improbity

N improbity, dishonesty, dishonor, deviation from rectitude, disgrace, fraud, lying, bad faith, Punic faith, mala fides, Punica fides, infidelity, faithlessness, Judas kiss, betrayal, breach of promise, breach of trust, breach of faith, prodition, disloyalty, treason, high treason, apostasy, nonobservance, shabbiness, villainy, villany, baseness, abjection, debasement, turpitude, moral turpitude, laxity, trimming, shuffling, perfidy, perfidiousness, treachery, double dealing, unfairness, knavery, roguery, rascality, foul play, jobbing, jobbery, graft, bribery, venality, nepotism, corruption, job, shuffle, fishy transaction, barratry, sharp practice, heads I win tails you lose, mouth honor, dishonest, dishonorable, unconscientious, unscrupulous, fraudulent, knavish, disgraceful, wicked, false-hearted, disingenuous, unfair, one-sided, double, double- hearted, double-tongued, double-faced, timeserving, crooked, tortuous, insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery, fishy, perfidious, treacherous, perjured, infamous, arrant, foul, base, vile, ignominious, blackguard, contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging, beneath one, low-minded, low-thoughted, base-minded, undignified, indign, unbecoming, unbeseeming, unbefitting, derogatory, degrading, infra dignitatem, beneath one's dignity, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unknightly, unchivalric, unmanly, unhandsome, recreant, inglorious, corrupt, venal, debased, mongrel, faithless, of bad faith, false, unfaithful, disloyal, untrustworthy, trustless, trothless, lost to shame, dead to honor, barratrous, dishonestly, mala fide, like a thief in the night, by crooked paths, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, corruptissima respublica plurimae leges.

Concealment

N concealment, hiding, occultation, mystification, seal of secrecy, screen, disguise, masquerade, masked battery, hiding place, cryptography, steganography, freemasonry, stealth, stealthiness, sneakiness, obreption, slyness, latitancy, latitation, seclusion, privacy, secrecy, secretness, incognita, reticence, reserve, mental reserve, reservation, arriere pensee, suppression, evasion, white lie, misprision, silence, suppression of truth, underhand dealing, closeness, secretiveness, mystery, latency, snake in the grass, secret, stowaway, concealed, hidden, secret, recondite, mystic, cabalistic, occult, dark, cryptic, cryptical, private, privy, in petto, auricular, clandestine, close, inviolate, tortuous, behind a screen, undercover, under an eclipse, in ambush, in hiding, in disguise, in a cloud, in a fog, in a mist, in a haze, in a dark corner, in the shade, in the dark, clouded, wrapped in clouds, wrapt in clouds, invisible, buried, underground, perdu, secluded, undisclosed &c, untold, covert, untraceable, mysterious, irrevealable, inviolable, confidential, esoteric, not to be spoken of, unmentionable, obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline, skulking, surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner, sly, secretive, evasive, reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up, close, close as wax, taciturn, secretly, in secret, in private, in one's sleeve, in holes and corners, in the dark, januis clausis, with closed doors, a huis clos, hugger mugger, a la derobee, under the cloak of, under the rose, under the table, sub rosa, en tapinois, in the background, aside, on the sly, with bated breath, sotto voce, in a whisper, without beat of drum, a la sourdine, behind the veil, beyond mortal ken, beyond the grave, beyond the veil, hid from mortal vision, into the eternal secret, into the realms supersensible, into the supreme mystery, in confidence, in strict confidence, in strictest confidence, confidentially, between ourselves, between you and me, between you and me and the bedpost, entre nous, inter nos, under the seal of secrecy, a couvert, underhand, by stealth, like a thief in the night, stealthily, behind the scenes, behind the curtain, behind one's back, behind a screen, incognito, in camera, it must go no further, it will go no further, don't tell a soul, tell it not in Gath, nobody the wiser, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, let it be tenable in your silence still, background information, deep background information, deep background, background session, backgrounder, not for attribution.