01 a. Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; a tortuous leaf or corolla.
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1.
Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; a tortuous leaf or corolla.“The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.” — Macaulay.
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2.
Fig.: Deviating from rectitude; indirect; erroneous; deceitful.“That course became somewhat lesstortuous, when the battle of the Boyne had cowed the spirit of the Jakobites.” — Macaulay.
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3.
Injurious: tortious.[Obs.]
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4.
Oblique; -- applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely.(Astrol.) [Obs.]“Infortunate ascendent tortuous.” — Chaucer.