anfractuous
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of anfractuous
First recorded 1575–85; from French anfractueux, from Late Latin anfractuosus “roundabout, prolix,” from Latin anfractus “bend, curve” (equivalent to the prefix am-, an-, a rare variant of ambi- “both, around, about”) and a derivative of the verb frangere “to break, shatter, smash” + adjective suffix -osus; see origin at fraction ( def. ), break ( def. ), -ose 1 ( def. )
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.
A state of being anfractuous, or full of windings and turnings; sinuosity.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
Thin, anfractuous highways and dirt roads scarred the green and brown landscape, and as far as the eye could reach were to be seen farmhouses and barns and silos.
From Quill's Window by George Barr McCutcheon
Paint me a cavernous waste shore Cast in the unstilted Cyclades, Paint me the bold anfractuous rocks Faced by the snarled and yelping seas.
From Poems by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
For throughout the labyrinth of all this anfractuous narrative there was indeed one guiding ray of light.
From Shelburne Essays, Third Series by Paul Elmer More
Winding; full of windings and turnings; sinuous; tortuous; as, the anfractuous spires of a born.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
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.
