Definition of tortuous in English:

tortuous

adjective ˈtɔːtʃʊəsˈtɔːtjʊəsˈtɔrtʃ(u)əs

1Full of twists and turns.
弯弯曲曲的，曲折的
the route is remote and tortuous
道路偏僻而曲折。
Example sentencesExamples
- The campaign is a long, sometimes tortuous period of time and these qualities help everyone not just survive, but thrive.
- Long, heavily calcified stenoses in tortuous vessels or at bifurcations and chronic total occlusions are less suitable.
- These veins are tortuous and bulky, making it virtually impossible to identify the spinal arteries.
- But that proved only the beginning of a long and tortuous road full of false starts and broken promises.
- It allows us to insert tortuous vessels where flexibility is very important.
- The vessels appear enlarged and tortuous, especially the venous capillaries.
- A barium enema showed a narrowed, tortuous sigmoid colon with multiple diverticuli and thickening of the bowel wall.
- It is perhaps all the more dangerous, more labyrinthine, and more tortuous for this reason.
- Several tortuous hypertrophic nerve bundles were also embedded in the fibrous tissue.
- The Ryder Cup trail has often been tortuous, twisting and downright tedious, but the rewards to the Scottish economy are expected to be enormous.
- Babies born at 25 weeks and less are at high risk of death, a long, tortuous journey through life, and disability.
- Varicose veins are tortuous, twisted, or lengthened veins.
- They all appear enlarged and have a tortuous course, especially the capillary veins.
- Eventually, after a particularly tortuous twist, the path opened out and they came to the Cave of the Prophet.
- An aneurysm expands laterally with systole while a tortuous aorta does not.
- Neither fascicles of smooth muscle cells nor thick-walled tortuous blood vessels were present.
- The splenic vein is not invested in a common sheath with the artery - it is retropancreatic and never tortuous.
- He was as tortuous and convoluted as a monkey puzzle tree.
- The common carotid artery sometimes follows a very tortuous course, forming one or more distinct loops in the neck.
- The nanofiller also creates a tortuous path for the penetration of gaseous vapors and liquids into the polymer.
Synonyms
twisting, winding, curving, curvy, bending, sinuous, undulating, coiling, looping, meandering, serpentine, snaking, snaky, zigzag, convoluted, spiralling, twisty, circuitous, rambling, wandering, indirect, deviating, devious, labyrinthine, mazy
rare anfractuous, flexuous
1. 1.1 Excessively lengthy and complex.
  冗长而繁复的
  a tortuous argument
  冗长的论证。
  Example sentencesExamples
  Paine was careful to contrast the tortuous twists of theology with the pure clarity of deism.
  We have been following a sometimes tortuous path through a maze of arguments and definitions.
  Then, after tortuous negotiations, the sale fell through.
  Yes, I know that it's still hard to know what exactly Bertie says or what he means or what the sum of his winding sentences and tortuous paragraphs amount to.
  The classification of tropical karst is highly complex, with a tortuous terminology derived from several languages.
  I think long sentences, tortuous sentences, sentences which are unnecessarily full of abstractions.
  They thus engage in a tortuous argument to show that it really wasn't about what the protesters said it was.
  Its rulers could not have been that lethargic, or its diplomacy so tortuous, for it to have survived for such a long period.
  The route to publication was long and occasionally tortuous, with considerable argument with editors and peer reviewers.
  The plot complications are tortuous, their resolutions unsatisfying and the characters thin.
  Instead, Brown has treated us to a tortuous, Jesuitical argument so self-contradictory it merits its own reprimand.
  So it's a very complicated, very complex and tortuous process that we're going through legally here.
  In fact, the argument here is not so tortuous as many to be found amongst the post-modernists.
  We had countless tortuous internal meetings to prioritize and slog through the full set of 500 items.
  His style, too, is often tortuous and gnomic, and it can be almost impossible to see what he actually means, as the endless discussions of his analysis of the causes of the war show.
  The second Presidential Address is similar, though to a modern eye the arguments are even more tortuous.
  Instead of destroying their sculptures, managers have to hand their work over to a different group to complete - a tortuous experience.
  But where does the inquiry go from here after the tortuous and lengthy taking of the evidence?
  Your writings over the past few years have been enormously important as a source of orientation through the tortuous twists and turns of imperialist strategy.
  The latest meander in this tortuous saga was the concern raised that when the road is finally in place that people would have to pay a toll to use it.
  Synonyms
  convoluted, roundabout, circuitous, indirect, unstraightforward, involved, complicated, complex, confusing, lengthy, overlong, verbose, difficult to follow

Usage

The two words tortuous and torturous have different core meanings. Tortuous means ‘full of twists and turns’, as in a tortuous route. Torturous means ‘involving or causing torture’, as in a torturous five days of fitness training. In extended senses, however, tortuous is used to mean ‘excessively lengthy and complex’ and hence may become indistinguishable from torturous: something which is tortuous is often also torturous, as in a tortuous piece of bureaucratic language; their way had been tortuous and very difficult. The overlap in sense has led to tortuous being sometimes used interchangeably with torturous, as in he would at last draw in a tortuous gasp of air

Derivatives

tortuosity

nounPlural tortuosities tɔːtʃʊˈɒsɪtitɔːtjʊˈɒsɪtiˌtɔrtʃuˈɑsədi

The tortuous course of the splenic artery is considered so variable that no two arteries are alike, but the tortuosity of the artery is absent in infants and children.
Example sentencesExamples
- Interestingly, they report wind-rose plots indicating that MLCK inhibition substantially reduces cell motility by increasing the directional tortuosity of cell paths.
- The tortuosity of the porous network is rationalized in terms of the ultrastructure known from electron microscopy.
- This is caused by differences in pore size, the tortuosity of pore channels, and the differential velocity of fluid across pores caused by drag resulting from the roughness of pore surfaces.
- Thus the main diffusion hindrance for these molecules should be the tortuosity of the diffusion path.
- The tortuosity of the cytosol, due to the presence of t-tubules and mitochondria, will increase the effective distance Na has to travel from one compartment to the other and thus might reduce the apparent D Na.
- The permeance is a composite quantity consisting of the diffusion coefficient, the partition coefficient, the membrane thickness, and the tortuosity of the diffusional path length.
- Reflux that is associated with significant dilation of the ureter, pelvis and calyces, and ureteral tortuosity.
- Retention of the fetal tortuosity, stunted development, or complete absence may involve one or both tubes.
- Multiple foci of ectatic sinusoids were present in the lobules, and the hepatic arterial branches showed marked angiomatous dilation and tortuosity with intimal hyperplasia in the portal areas.
- The tortuosity, defined as the square root of the ratio of D f to D b, was 2.14 and moderate in magnitude.
- When adjusted to account for in vivo tortuosity, diffusion coefficients in gels matched previous measurements in four human tumor xenografts with equivalent collagen concentrations.
- Bruits over the aortic area, when they are soft, have no significance; a very loud bruit may represent extensive atherosclerosis, extreme tortuosity of the aorta, or an aortic aneurysm.
- We have previously demonstrated that decreases in skin elasticity, accompanied by increases in the tortuosity of elastic fibers, are important early events in wrinkle formation.
- Late type I endoleaks occur when the repaired aorta decreases in size and tortuosity, which can cause proximal aortic neck dilatation and resultant loss of seal.
- Atheroma is a discrete plaque containing lipid deposits that arises in the intima of an artery and has a predilection for areas of tortuosity and turbulence of blood flow.
- Furthermore, when the data for collagen gels were adjusted for area fraction and tortuosity in tumors, the permeability was higher in tumors than in gels of comparable concentration.
- Our approach was to describe diffusion in the cell-substratum gap by lumping porosity and tortuosity as an ‘effective diffusion co-efficient.’
- Furthermore, theoretical correction of gel diffusion data for the effects of in vivo tortuosity yielded good agreement with in vivo measurements in tumors of comparable collagen concentration.
- Permeability changes, however, can merely be inferred, as pore throat sizes and tortuosity cannot be predicted from thermodynamics.

tortuously

adverbˈtɔːtʃʊəsliˈtɔːtjʊəsliˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsli

tortuously twisting logic
Example sentencesExamples
- The way that capitalism shifts money from place to place, account to account, in order to make it work for the investor often is tortuously complicated.
- The first sign of life is a tiny vehicle, winding its way tortuously along the thin white thread of a dirt road snaking through the rocky terrain.
- The only way to reach it is by two-lane roads, most of which twist tortuously through the scenic coastal mountain range or along the rocky Pacific coast.
- Slowly, tortuously and doubtless with many setbacks, change will come.
- Not only did we break the story about the new kitemark for credit cards, but we pre-empted the statement by outlining the tortuously complicated way charges are levied on customers.
- Cardiff had to light up to eight rooms at a time, with electricians following a tortuously complex series of lighting cues.
- We wound our way tortuously through the rugged hills of the Sierra de la Peña.
- Last night I went through a series of garish and tortuously overplotted dreams.
- His comments were tortuously analysed, letters were published and editorials were written.
- I have sent four e-mails via the tortuously confusing BBC Website contacts page and made over a dozen phone calls to various departments.

tortuousness

nounˈtɔːtjʊəsnəsˈtɔːtʃʊəsnəsˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsnəs

Murrayfield's media centre, the usual home for the tautology and tortuousness of Scottish rugby-speak, was never like this.
Example sentencesExamples
- A focal stenosis on a straight artery without proximal vessel tortuousness or involvement of major side branches is ideal for percutaneous intervention.
- The tortuousness of the judiciary, however frustrating it is, does not mutate him from suspect to terrorist.

Origin

Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin tortuosus, from tortus 'twisting, a twist', from Latin torquere 'to twist'.

torch from Middle English:
A torch in the original sense of ‘something soaked in an inflammable substance used to give light’ was often made of twisted hemp or other fibres. This is still the American meaning, and reflects the word's Latin origin, torquere ‘to twist’. Only in British English can torch describe a battery-powered electric lamp, which Americans call a flashlight. A torch song is a sad or sentimental song of unrequited love, whose name, used since the 1920s, comes from the phrase carry a torch for, ‘to love someone who does not love you in return’. The image in pass on the torch, ‘to pass on a tradition, especially one of learning or enlightenment’, is that of the runners in a relay race passing on the torch to each other, as was the custom in the ancient Greek Olympic Games. The Latin source of torch, torquere, is found in a large number of other English words. Most obviously it is the source of the engineer's torque (late 19th century), and the twisted Celtic neck-ring the torc (mid 19th century). Less obviously it is in contort (Late Middle English) ‘twist together’; distort (Late Middle English) ‘twist out of shape’; extort (early 16th century) ‘twist out of’; and retort (Late Middle English) ‘to twist back’ (the chemical apparatus gets its name from its twisted shape). Tortura ‘twisting, torment’ the Latin noun formed from the verb gives us torture and tortuous (both LME), and torment (Middle English). Thwart (Middle English) is an Old Norse word that goes back to the same Indo-European root.

Definition of tortuous in US English:

tortuous

adjectiveˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsˈtôrCH(o͞o)əs

1Full of twists and turns.
弯弯曲曲的，曲折的
the route is remote and tortuous
道路偏僻而曲折。
Example sentencesExamples
- It allows us to insert tortuous vessels where flexibility is very important.
- Several tortuous hypertrophic nerve bundles were also embedded in the fibrous tissue.
- But that proved only the beginning of a long and tortuous road full of false starts and broken promises.
- Babies born at 25 weeks and less are at high risk of death, a long, tortuous journey through life, and disability.
- The splenic vein is not invested in a common sheath with the artery - it is retropancreatic and never tortuous.
- It is perhaps all the more dangerous, more labyrinthine, and more tortuous for this reason.
- An aneurysm expands laterally with systole while a tortuous aorta does not.
- The vessels appear enlarged and tortuous, especially the venous capillaries.
- Varicose veins are tortuous, twisted, or lengthened veins.
- Neither fascicles of smooth muscle cells nor thick-walled tortuous blood vessels were present.
- They all appear enlarged and have a tortuous course, especially the capillary veins.
- The campaign is a long, sometimes tortuous period of time and these qualities help everyone not just survive, but thrive.
- He was as tortuous and convoluted as a monkey puzzle tree.
- The Ryder Cup trail has often been tortuous, twisting and downright tedious, but the rewards to the Scottish economy are expected to be enormous.
- A barium enema showed a narrowed, tortuous sigmoid colon with multiple diverticuli and thickening of the bowel wall.
- The nanofiller also creates a tortuous path for the penetration of gaseous vapors and liquids into the polymer.
- Long, heavily calcified stenoses in tortuous vessels or at bifurcations and chronic total occlusions are less suitable.
- Eventually, after a particularly tortuous twist, the path opened out and they came to the Cave of the Prophet.
- These veins are tortuous and bulky, making it virtually impossible to identify the spinal arteries.
- The common carotid artery sometimes follows a very tortuous course, forming one or more distinct loops in the neck.
Synonyms
twisting, winding, curving, curvy, bending, sinuous, undulating, coiling, looping, meandering, serpentine, snaking, snaky, zigzag, convoluted, spiralling, twisty, circuitous, rambling, wandering, indirect, deviating, devious, labyrinthine, mazy
1. 1.1 Excessively lengthy and complex.
  冗长而繁复的
  a tortuous argument
  冗长的论证。
  Example sentencesExamples
  The latest meander in this tortuous saga was the concern raised that when the road is finally in place that people would have to pay a toll to use it.
  Your writings over the past few years have been enormously important as a source of orientation through the tortuous twists and turns of imperialist strategy.
  Instead, Brown has treated us to a tortuous, Jesuitical argument so self-contradictory it merits its own reprimand.
  The route to publication was long and occasionally tortuous, with considerable argument with editors and peer reviewers.
  We had countless tortuous internal meetings to prioritize and slog through the full set of 500 items.
  They thus engage in a tortuous argument to show that it really wasn't about what the protesters said it was.
  The classification of tropical karst is highly complex, with a tortuous terminology derived from several languages.
  Paine was careful to contrast the tortuous twists of theology with the pure clarity of deism.
  We have been following a sometimes tortuous path through a maze of arguments and definitions.
  Then, after tortuous negotiations, the sale fell through.
  His style, too, is often tortuous and gnomic, and it can be almost impossible to see what he actually means, as the endless discussions of his analysis of the causes of the war show.
  Yes, I know that it's still hard to know what exactly Bertie says or what he means or what the sum of his winding sentences and tortuous paragraphs amount to.
  Instead of destroying their sculptures, managers have to hand their work over to a different group to complete - a tortuous experience.
  The second Presidential Address is similar, though to a modern eye the arguments are even more tortuous.
  I think long sentences, tortuous sentences, sentences which are unnecessarily full of abstractions.
  Its rulers could not have been that lethargic, or its diplomacy so tortuous, for it to have survived for such a long period.
  But where does the inquiry go from here after the tortuous and lengthy taking of the evidence?
  The plot complications are tortuous, their resolutions unsatisfying and the characters thin.
  So it's a very complicated, very complex and tortuous process that we're going through legally here.
  In fact, the argument here is not so tortuous as many to be found amongst the post-modernists.
  Synonyms
  convoluted, roundabout, circuitous, indirect, unstraightforward, involved, complicated, complex, confusing, lengthy, overlong, verbose, difficult to follow

Usage

On the difference between tortuous and torturous, see torturous

Origin

Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin tortuosus, from tortus ‘twisting, a twist’, from Latin torquere ‘to twist’.

词汇	tortuous
释义	Definition of tortuous in English: tortuous adjective ˈtɔːtʃʊəsˈtɔːtjʊəsˈtɔrtʃ(u)əs 1Full of twists and turns. 弯弯曲曲的，曲折的 the route is remote and tortuous 道路偏僻而曲折。 Example sentencesExamples The campaign is a long, sometimes tortuous period of time and these qualities help everyone not just survive, but thrive. Long, heavily calcified stenoses in tortuous vessels or at bifurcations and chronic total occlusions are less suitable. These veins are tortuous and bulky, making it virtually impossible to identify the spinal arteries. But that proved only the beginning of a long and tortuous road full of false starts and broken promises. It allows us to insert tortuous vessels where flexibility is very important. The vessels appear enlarged and tortuous, especially the venous capillaries. A barium enema showed a narrowed, tortuous sigmoid colon with multiple diverticuli and thickening of the bowel wall. It is perhaps all the more dangerous, more labyrinthine, and more tortuous for this reason. Several tortuous hypertrophic nerve bundles were also embedded in the fibrous tissue. The Ryder Cup trail has often been tortuous, twisting and downright tedious, but the rewards to the Scottish economy are expected to be enormous. Babies born at 25 weeks and less are at high risk of death, a long, tortuous journey through life, and disability. Varicose veins are tortuous, twisted, or lengthened veins. They all appear enlarged and have a tortuous course, especially the capillary veins. Eventually, after a particularly tortuous twist, the path opened out and they came to the Cave of the Prophet. An aneurysm expands laterally with systole while a tortuous aorta does not. Neither fascicles of smooth muscle cells nor thick-walled tortuous blood vessels were present. The splenic vein is not invested in a common sheath with the artery - it is retropancreatic and never tortuous. He was as tortuous and convoluted as a monkey puzzle tree. The common carotid artery sometimes follows a very tortuous course, forming one or more distinct loops in the neck. The nanofiller also creates a tortuous path for the penetration of gaseous vapors and liquids into the polymer. Synonyms twisting, winding, curving, curvy, bending, sinuous, undulating, coiling, looping, meandering, serpentine, snaking, snaky, zigzag, convoluted, spiralling, twisty, circuitous, rambling, wandering, indirect, deviating, devious, labyrinthine, mazy rare anfractuous, flexuous 1.1 Excessively lengthy and complex. 冗长而繁复的 a tortuous argument 冗长的论证。 Example sentencesExamples Paine was careful to contrast the tortuous twists of theology with the pure clarity of deism. We have been following a sometimes tortuous path through a maze of arguments and definitions. Then, after tortuous negotiations, the sale fell through. Yes, I know that it's still hard to know what exactly Bertie says or what he means or what the sum of his winding sentences and tortuous paragraphs amount to. The classification of tropical karst is highly complex, with a tortuous terminology derived from several languages. I think long sentences, tortuous sentences, sentences which are unnecessarily full of abstractions. They thus engage in a tortuous argument to show that it really wasn't about what the protesters said it was. Its rulers could not have been that lethargic, or its diplomacy so tortuous, for it to have survived for such a long period. The route to publication was long and occasionally tortuous, with considerable argument with editors and peer reviewers. The plot complications are tortuous, their resolutions unsatisfying and the characters thin. Instead, Brown has treated us to a tortuous, Jesuitical argument so self-contradictory it merits its own reprimand. So it's a very complicated, very complex and tortuous process that we're going through legally here. In fact, the argument here is not so tortuous as many to be found amongst the post-modernists. We had countless tortuous internal meetings to prioritize and slog through the full set of 500 items. His style, too, is often tortuous and gnomic, and it can be almost impossible to see what he actually means, as the endless discussions of his analysis of the causes of the war show. The second Presidential Address is similar, though to a modern eye the arguments are even more tortuous. Instead of destroying their sculptures, managers have to hand their work over to a different group to complete - a tortuous experience. But where does the inquiry go from here after the tortuous and lengthy taking of the evidence? Your writings over the past few years have been enormously important as a source of orientation through the tortuous twists and turns of imperialist strategy. The latest meander in this tortuous saga was the concern raised that when the road is finally in place that people would have to pay a toll to use it. Synonyms convoluted, roundabout, circuitous, indirect, unstraightforward, involved, complicated, complex, confusing, lengthy, overlong, verbose, difficult to follow Usage The two words tortuous and torturous have different core meanings. Tortuous means ‘full of twists and turns’, as in a tortuous route. Torturous means ‘involving or causing torture’, as in a torturous five days of fitness training. In extended senses, however, tortuous is used to mean ‘excessively lengthy and complex’ and hence may become indistinguishable from torturous: something which is tortuous is often also torturous, as in a tortuous piece of bureaucratic language; their way had been tortuous and very difficult. The overlap in sense has led to tortuous being sometimes used interchangeably with torturous, as in he would at last draw in a tortuous gasp of air Derivatives tortuosity nounPlural tortuosities tɔːtʃʊˈɒsɪtitɔːtjʊˈɒsɪtiˌtɔrtʃuˈɑsədi The tortuous course of the splenic artery is considered so variable that no two arteries are alike, but the tortuosity of the artery is absent in infants and children. Example sentencesExamples Interestingly, they report wind-rose plots indicating that MLCK inhibition substantially reduces cell motility by increasing the directional tortuosity of cell paths. The tortuosity of the porous network is rationalized in terms of the ultrastructure known from electron microscopy. This is caused by differences in pore size, the tortuosity of pore channels, and the differential velocity of fluid across pores caused by drag resulting from the roughness of pore surfaces. Thus the main diffusion hindrance for these molecules should be the tortuosity of the diffusion path. The tortuosity of the cytosol, due to the presence of t-tubules and mitochondria, will increase the effective distance Na has to travel from one compartment to the other and thus might reduce the apparent D Na. The permeance is a composite quantity consisting of the diffusion coefficient, the partition coefficient, the membrane thickness, and the tortuosity of the diffusional path length. Reflux that is associated with significant dilation of the ureter, pelvis and calyces, and ureteral tortuosity. Retention of the fetal tortuosity, stunted development, or complete absence may involve one or both tubes. Multiple foci of ectatic sinusoids were present in the lobules, and the hepatic arterial branches showed marked angiomatous dilation and tortuosity with intimal hyperplasia in the portal areas. The tortuosity, defined as the square root of the ratio of D f to D b, was 2.14 and moderate in magnitude. When adjusted to account for in vivo tortuosity, diffusion coefficients in gels matched previous measurements in four human tumor xenografts with equivalent collagen concentrations. Bruits over the aortic area, when they are soft, have no significance; a very loud bruit may represent extensive atherosclerosis, extreme tortuosity of the aorta, or an aortic aneurysm. We have previously demonstrated that decreases in skin elasticity, accompanied by increases in the tortuosity of elastic fibers, are important early events in wrinkle formation. Late type I endoleaks occur when the repaired aorta decreases in size and tortuosity, which can cause proximal aortic neck dilatation and resultant loss of seal. Atheroma is a discrete plaque containing lipid deposits that arises in the intima of an artery and has a predilection for areas of tortuosity and turbulence of blood flow. Furthermore, when the data for collagen gels were adjusted for area fraction and tortuosity in tumors, the permeability was higher in tumors than in gels of comparable concentration. Our approach was to describe diffusion in the cell-substratum gap by lumping porosity and tortuosity as an ‘effective diffusion co-efficient.’ Furthermore, theoretical correction of gel diffusion data for the effects of in vivo tortuosity yielded good agreement with in vivo measurements in tumors of comparable collagen concentration. Permeability changes, however, can merely be inferred, as pore throat sizes and tortuosity cannot be predicted from thermodynamics. tortuously adverbˈtɔːtʃʊəsliˈtɔːtjʊəsliˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsli tortuously twisting logic Example sentencesExamples The way that capitalism shifts money from place to place, account to account, in order to make it work for the investor often is tortuously complicated. The first sign of life is a tiny vehicle, winding its way tortuously along the thin white thread of a dirt road snaking through the rocky terrain. The only way to reach it is by two-lane roads, most of which twist tortuously through the scenic coastal mountain range or along the rocky Pacific coast. Slowly, tortuously and doubtless with many setbacks, change will come. Not only did we break the story about the new kitemark for credit cards, but we pre-empted the statement by outlining the tortuously complicated way charges are levied on customers. Cardiff had to light up to eight rooms at a time, with electricians following a tortuously complex series of lighting cues. We wound our way tortuously through the rugged hills of the Sierra de la Peña. Last night I went through a series of garish and tortuously overplotted dreams. His comments were tortuously analysed, letters were published and editorials were written. I have sent four e-mails via the tortuously confusing BBC Website contacts page and made over a dozen phone calls to various departments. tortuousness nounˈtɔːtjʊəsnəsˈtɔːtʃʊəsnəsˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsnəs Murrayfield's media centre, the usual home for the tautology and tortuousness of Scottish rugby-speak, was never like this. Example sentencesExamples A focal stenosis on a straight artery without proximal vessel tortuousness or involvement of major side branches is ideal for percutaneous intervention. The tortuousness of the judiciary, however frustrating it is, does not mutate him from suspect to terrorist. Origin Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin tortuosus, from tortus 'twisting, a twist', from Latin torquere 'to twist'. torch from Middle English: A torch in the original sense of ‘something soaked in an inflammable substance used to give light’ was often made of twisted hemp or other fibres. This is still the American meaning, and reflects the word's Latin origin, torquere ‘to twist’. Only in British English can torch describe a battery-powered electric lamp, which Americans call a flashlight. A torch song is a sad or sentimental song of unrequited love, whose name, used since the 1920s, comes from the phrase carry a torch for, ‘to love someone who does not love you in return’. The image in pass on the torch, ‘to pass on a tradition, especially one of learning or enlightenment’, is that of the runners in a relay race passing on the torch to each other, as was the custom in the ancient Greek Olympic Games. The Latin source of torch, torquere, is found in a large number of other English words. Most obviously it is the source of the engineer's torque (late 19th century), and the twisted Celtic neck-ring the torc (mid 19th century). Less obviously it is in contort (Late Middle English) ‘twist together’; distort (Late Middle English) ‘twist out of shape’; extort (early 16th century) ‘twist out of’; and retort (Late Middle English) ‘to twist back’ (the chemical apparatus gets its name from its twisted shape). Tortura ‘twisting, torment’ the Latin noun formed from the verb gives us torture and tortuous (both LME), and torment (Middle English). Thwart (Middle English) is an Old Norse word that goes back to the same Indo-European root. Definition of tortuous in US English: tortuous adjectiveˈtɔrtʃ(u)əsˈtôrCH(o͞o)əs 1Full of twists and turns. 弯弯曲曲的，曲折的 the route is remote and tortuous 道路偏僻而曲折。 Example sentencesExamples It allows us to insert tortuous vessels where flexibility is very important. Several tortuous hypertrophic nerve bundles were also embedded in the fibrous tissue. But that proved only the beginning of a long and tortuous road full of false starts and broken promises. Babies born at 25 weeks and less are at high risk of death, a long, tortuous journey through life, and disability. The splenic vein is not invested in a common sheath with the artery - it is retropancreatic and never tortuous. It is perhaps all the more dangerous, more labyrinthine, and more tortuous for this reason. An aneurysm expands laterally with systole while a tortuous aorta does not. The vessels appear enlarged and tortuous, especially the venous capillaries. Varicose veins are tortuous, twisted, or lengthened veins. Neither fascicles of smooth muscle cells nor thick-walled tortuous blood vessels were present. They all appear enlarged and have a tortuous course, especially the capillary veins. The campaign is a long, sometimes tortuous period of time and these qualities help everyone not just survive, but thrive. He was as tortuous and convoluted as a monkey puzzle tree. The Ryder Cup trail has often been tortuous, twisting and downright tedious, but the rewards to the Scottish economy are expected to be enormous. A barium enema showed a narrowed, tortuous sigmoid colon with multiple diverticuli and thickening of the bowel wall. The nanofiller also creates a tortuous path for the penetration of gaseous vapors and liquids into the polymer. Long, heavily calcified stenoses in tortuous vessels or at bifurcations and chronic total occlusions are less suitable. Eventually, after a particularly tortuous twist, the path opened out and they came to the Cave of the Prophet. These veins are tortuous and bulky, making it virtually impossible to identify the spinal arteries. The common carotid artery sometimes follows a very tortuous course, forming one or more distinct loops in the neck. Synonyms twisting, winding, curving, curvy, bending, sinuous, undulating, coiling, looping, meandering, serpentine, snaking, snaky, zigzag, convoluted, spiralling, twisty, circuitous, rambling, wandering, indirect, deviating, devious, labyrinthine, mazy 1.1 Excessively lengthy and complex. 冗长而繁复的 a tortuous argument 冗长的论证。 Example sentencesExamples The latest meander in this tortuous saga was the concern raised that when the road is finally in place that people would have to pay a toll to use it. Your writings over the past few years have been enormously important as a source of orientation through the tortuous twists and turns of imperialist strategy. Instead, Brown has treated us to a tortuous, Jesuitical argument so self-contradictory it merits its own reprimand. The route to publication was long and occasionally tortuous, with considerable argument with editors and peer reviewers. We had countless tortuous internal meetings to prioritize and slog through the full set of 500 items. They thus engage in a tortuous argument to show that it really wasn't about what the protesters said it was. The classification of tropical karst is highly complex, with a tortuous terminology derived from several languages. Paine was careful to contrast the tortuous twists of theology with the pure clarity of deism. We have been following a sometimes tortuous path through a maze of arguments and definitions. Then, after tortuous negotiations, the sale fell through. His style, too, is often tortuous and gnomic, and it can be almost impossible to see what he actually means, as the endless discussions of his analysis of the causes of the war show. Yes, I know that it's still hard to know what exactly Bertie says or what he means or what the sum of his winding sentences and tortuous paragraphs amount to. Instead of destroying their sculptures, managers have to hand their work over to a different group to complete - a tortuous experience. The second Presidential Address is similar, though to a modern eye the arguments are even more tortuous. I think long sentences, tortuous sentences, sentences which are unnecessarily full of abstractions. Its rulers could not have been that lethargic, or its diplomacy so tortuous, for it to have survived for such a long period. But where does the inquiry go from here after the tortuous and lengthy taking of the evidence? The plot complications are tortuous, their resolutions unsatisfying and the characters thin. So it's a very complicated, very complex and tortuous process that we're going through legally here. In fact, the argument here is not so tortuous as many to be found amongst the post-modernists. Synonyms convoluted, roundabout, circuitous, indirect, unstraightforward, involved, complicated, complex, confusing, lengthy, overlong, verbose, difficult to follow Usage On the difference between tortuous and torturous, see torturous Origin Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin tortuosus, from tortus ‘twisting, a twist’, from Latin torquere ‘to twist’.
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