Word of the Day 12/30/24 Tortuous

[simplyn2deep.livejournal.com]

Tortuous (adjective)
tor·tu·ous [tawr-choo-uhs] (previously 11-04-13)

adjective
1. full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.
2. not direct or straightforward, as in procedure or speech; intricate; circuitous: tortuous negotiations lasting for months.
3. deceitfully indirect or morally crooked, as proceedings, methods, or policy; devious.

Can be confused: torturous (see usage note at torturous).

Other Words From
tor tu·ous·ly adverb
tor tu·ous·ness noun
non·tor tu·ous adjective
non·tor tu·ous·ly adverb
un·tor tu·ous adjective
un·tor tu·ous·ly adverb
un·tor tu·ous·ness noun

Related Words
circuitous, convoluted, indirect, labyrinthine, meandering, serpentine, twisting, winding

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
Synonyms
1. bent, sinuous, serpentine.
2. evasive, roundabout, indirect.

Origin: 1350–1400; Middle English < Latin tortuosus , equivalent to tortu ( s ) a twisting ( tor ( quere ) to twist, bend + -tus suffix of v. action) + -osus -ous

Example Sentences
Prime ministers often manage to wax lyrical at considerable length in a letter marking a departure, however tortuous or headline-making the whole saga has been.
From BBC

The bizarre, tortuous journey of the Bahia Emerald began in the depths of a Brazilian mine and eventually landed it in a Los Angeles County sheriff’s evidence locker, where it remains today.
From Los Angeles Times

It also revamped the filter to contain “a tortuous maze of micropores” that helps to “address 200+ typical contaminants found in tap water.”
From Los Angeles Times

Each week, the section highlights one wedding with photos and a generally upbeat tale about the couple’s sometimes tortuous road to the altar.
From Los Angeles Times

They also revamped the filter to contain “a tortuous maze of micropores” that helps to “address 200+ typical contaminants found in tap water.”
From Los Angeles Times

Now YOU come up with a sentence (or fic? or graphic?) that best illustrates the word.

Comments

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

Limping, he could not keep up with Gracen, so when the anakarist released his hand to continue running in a selfish act of self-preservation, Donn did the only thing he could. He ducked into the first open doorway he could, a doorway hidden in shadow and barely accessible with so much debris and broken timbers collapsed in front of it. Pressed against the wall where he did not think torch or lantern light would penetrate, he listened to the racing steps and eventual screams that erupted before them, holding his breath, unable to think over the sounds of the blood thundering in his ears and the hammering of his heart. Some footsteps ran past in the returning directions, then others, heavier boots came back, until the shouts and cheers of jubilation turned into a frenzy as though the source was now the pursued. When he judged the threats to be far enough away, Donn stripped off his suit jacket and turned it inside out to hide the Channon family emblem, pulled the hood awkwardly over his head, and then struggled over the debris into the empty street.
He could not go back to the Fortress tonight, but there were other places he could go if he could remember the passwords that would buy him entry when his lack of credits would not.
Head down, muttering to himself, thinking without humor that imitating his drunken, addled brother’s normal condition would spare him the suspicion of anyone he passed, he paused only at the sight of a broken, twisted figure lying discarded in the gutter at the side of the road…the way he had once left the woman who had meant everything to him. Swarmed now by anger and memories and quotations his father once spouted in admonition when Donn had displeased or disappointed him, Donn did not look more closely before shuffling away with tortuously slow steps.
He had seen the man’s white color. He had seen the emblem on his sideways torn lapel.
He had seen all he needed to see.
He knew enough.
Come tomorrow, Grand Elder Lord and the HOPE council would know it too.