tortuously

2 definitions found

tortuously - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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]

tortuously - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  tortuously
      adv 1: with twists and turns
      2: in a tortuous manner; "tortuously haggling over the price"