Definition of "convolute" [con•vo•lute]

• Rolled or coiled together in overlapping whorls, as certain leaves, petals, or shells. (adjective)
• To coil or fold or cause to coil or fold in overlapping whorls. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A more practical solution, however, turned out to be something called a convolute"
• "Ironically, I think this choice illustrates the ‘appalling’ inconvenient truth that politics itself, not merit, does indeed often determine who wins in real, if not American movie, life; that ulterior motives and surface features can and do, at the same time, in contradictory sorts of ways, convolute to bequeath value, and trump substance."
• "Fans who do want to see Jason in graduate school or Maggie in the office can turn to fan fiction instead of pressuring the creators to convolute the sources."