tortuous

Adjective
Synonyms: Byzantineconvolutedinvolvedknottytangledtwistingtwistywindingvoluminous

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (3)

  1. highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious“the Byzantine tax structure”“Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship”“convoluted legal language”“convoluted reasoning”“the plot was too involved”“a knotty problem”“got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering”“Oh, what a tangled web we weave — Sir Walter Scott”“tortuous legal procedures”“tortuous negotiations lasting for months”Synonyms: Byzantineconvolutedinvolvedknottytangled
  2. marked by repeated turns and bends“a tortuous road up the mountain”“winding roads are full of surprises”“had to steer the car down a twisty track”Synonyms: twistingtwistywindingvoluminous
  3. not straightforward“his tortuous reasoning”
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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]
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