tor"tu*ous*ness
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
Tortuous \Tor"tu*ous\, a. [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 leaf or corolla. [1913 Webster]
The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.— Macaulay.[1913 Webster]
2.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.— Macaulay.[1913 Webster]
3.Injurious: tortious. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
4.(Astrol.) Oblique; -- applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely. [Obs.] --Skeat. [1913 Webster]
Infortunate ascendent tortuous. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] --Tor"tu*ous*ly, adv. -- Tor"tu*ous*ness, n. [1913 Webster]