distort
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed.
Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
-
to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent.
to distort the facts.
- Synonyms:
- misstate, falsify, twist, misconstrue, pervert
-
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
-
(often passive) to twist or pull out of shape; make bent or misshapen; contort; deform
-
to alter or misrepresent (facts, motives, etc)
-
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.
"When you go through something like that so young it kind of distorts your reality for a long time," Pesante said.
From BBC
At even later stages, the atoms form more stretched and distorted shapes, reflecting a swinging, roaming motion.
From Science Daily
It previously agreed to add safeguards that could pause tariffs on some agricultural goods from South America if there is evidence that they are distorting prices in the EU.
The dip was distorted by labor strikes, but it raises an important question: Can healthcare keep the economy healthy?
"However, cancer should rather be understood as a distorted form of development."
From Science Daily
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.
