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Definition of "tortuous" []

  • Having or marked by repeated turns or bends; winding or twisting: a tortuous road through the mountains. (adjective)
  • Not straightforward; circuitous; devious: a tortuous plot; tortuous reasoning. (adjective)
  • Highly involved; complex: tortuous legal procedures. (adjective)

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.

Use "tortuous" in a sentence
  • "The 47-year-old Nigerian immigrant and Woodbridge resident says she escaped what she called a tortuous relationship nine years ago, nearly became homeless, and she is now the owner of Certified Skilled Nursing Services and Associates Inc. in Dumfries."
  • "Winds and seismic and tectonic disruptions have left their mark in tortuous folds and uplifts, deep gashes, and conical incrustations that hark back far before the age of human folly."
  • "And if it takes the best legal minds at DOJ and the Whitehouse MONTHS to come up with "innovative" legal logic that justifies the current NSA program (as they have claimed), how thin and tortuous is that logic?"