[ US /ˈtɔɹtʃəwəs/ ]
[ UK /tˈɔːt‍ʃuːəs/ ]
ADJECTIVE
  1. not straightforward
    his tortuous reasoning
  2. marked by repeated turns and bends
    a tortuous road up the mountain
    had to steer the car down a twisty track
    winding roads are full of surprises
  3. highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
    convoluted reasoning
    Oh, what a tangled web we weave
    a knotty problem
    got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering
    the plot was too involved
    tortuous negotiations lasting for months
    tortuous legal procedures
    the Byzantine tax structure
    convoluted legal language
    Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship
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How To Use tortuous In A Sentence

  • The road towards qualification still seems like it is going to be another long and tortuous one. The Sun
  • In foreign policy, he has Obama's specific mandate to monitor the wind-down of the American troop involvement in Iraq and to baby-sit its tortuous journey to political stability. Jules Witcover: Obama's Sidekick Joe Biden: Understanding The Vice President
  • With superb boatmanship he threaded the narrow, tortuous channel which no craft larger than a whaleboat could negotiate, until the shoals and patches showed seaward and they grounded on the quiet, rippling beach. A SON OF THE SUN
  • Instead, Brown has treated us to a tortuous, Jesuitical argument so self-contradictory it merits its own reprimand.
  • His style, too, is often tortuous and gnomic, and it can be almost impossible to see what he actually means, as the endless discussions of his analysis of the causes of the war show.
  • The Arteria Profunda Linguæ (ranine artery; deep lingual artery) is the terminal portion of the lingual artery; it pursues a tortuous course and runs along the under surface of the tongue, below the Longitudinalis inferior, and above the mucous membrane; it lies on the lateral side of the Genioglossus, accompanied by the lingual nerve. VI. The Arteries. 3a. 2. The External Carotid Artery
  • Eventually, after a particularly tortuous twist, the path opened out and they came to the Cave of the Prophet.
  • Here begins the manzanita, adjusting its tortuous stiff stems to the sharp waste of boulders, its pale olive leaves twisting edgewise to the sleek, ruddy, chestnut stems; begins also the meadowsweet, burnished laurel, and the million unregarded trumpets of the coral - red pentstemon. The Land of Little Rain
  • Two days of debate followed, producing formulations ever more tortuous and wordy, amid signs of growing impatience from the public galleries.
  • The tortuously narrow Lolo Trail, blocked by crags, trees and undergrowth, was quickly traversed by Joseph's uncomplaining cavalcade.
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