contorted
Americanadjective
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twisted in a violent manner; distorted.
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twisted back on itself; convoluted.
adjective
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twisted out of shape
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(esp of petals and sepals in a bud) twisted so that they overlap on one side
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contorted
Explanation
Use the adjective contorted to describe something that's twisted or misshapen. If your face is contorted with frustration as you build a model sailboat, you’re furrowing your brows and wrinkling your nose — and should probably find a new hobby. Things can be physically contorted, like a twisting mountain trail, or figuratively contorted, like a biased magazine article. A story can get contorted as well. The more times you tell people the tale of your bike crash, the more it changes, until in the end you're telling a pretty contorted version in which the bike is a motorcycle and the lamp post is a pack of rabid dogs.
Vocabulary lists containing contorted
The Giver
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Twists and Turns: Tor
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"Of Mice and Men"
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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.
Mandragora produces short films and Mr de Launay's script for a feature called Contorted Hazel was selected for the Bafta Rocliffe New Writing Forum at last year's Edinburgh Film Festival.
From BBC • Feb. 9, 2012
Contorted faces appeared at cabin portholes, trapped, staring out from the red-hot plates.
From Time Magazine Archive
Through hissing snow, through rain, through many hundred Mays, Contorted in Promethean jest, the gargoyles sit, And watch the crowds pursue the charted ways, Whose source is birth, whose end they only know.
From The Five Books of Youth by Hillyer, Robert
Contorted lamin� are rather characteristic of the deposits of stratified drift.
From The Geography of the Region about Devils Lake and the Dalles of the Wisconsin by Atwood, Wallace W.
In the first case the �stivation is Convolute, also named Contorted or Twisted, as in Fig.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa
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.
