distort
Americanverb (used with object)
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to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed.
Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
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to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent.
to distort the facts.
- Synonyms:
- misstate, falsify, twist, misconstrue, pervert
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Electronics. to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately by changing the frequencies or unequally changing the delay or amplitude of the components of the output wave.
verb
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(often passive) to twist or pull out of shape; make bent or misshapen; contort; deform
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to alter or misrepresent (facts, motives, etc)
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electronics to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately, changing the shape of the waveform
Related Words
See misrepresent.
Other Word Forms
- distorted adjective
- distortedly adverb
- distortedness noun
- distorter noun
- distortive adjective
- nondistorting adjective
- nondistortingly adverb
- nondistortive adjective
- overdistort verb (used with object)
- undistorting adjective
Etymology
Origin of distort
1580–90; from Latin distortus (past participle of distorquēre “to distort”), equivalent to dis- dis- 1 + tor(qu)- (stem of torquēre “to twist”) + -tus past participle suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It featured a large, alien character, resembling a human but with a distorted head shape and muzzled mouth.
From BBC
“We see telltale signs of a market distorted beyond recognition, one that punishes strategic investment, one that punishes diversification,” Vice President JD Vance said.
Herzog has condemned the UN report, which he said took his words out of context, while the Israeli foreign minister called it "distorted and false".
From BBC
The first is that the well-known phenomenon of recency bias, where our brains give too much weight to recent events, is distorting our picture of stocks and bonds.
From MarketWatch
Accounting rules that distort financial reports can create hidden value at companies.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
