tor·tu·ous /ˈtɔrʧwəs, ˈtɔrʧə-/
 (a.)扭曲的,彎曲的,囉唆的,欺騙的
 tor·tu·ous /ˈtɔrʧ(ə)wəs/ 形容詞
 (拉tortuosus)多彎拐的,扭曲的
 Tor·tu·ous a.
 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.
 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.
 3. Injurious: tortious. [Obs.]
 4. Astrol. Oblique; -- applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) which ascend most rapidly and obliquely. [Obs.]
    Infortunate ascendent tortuous.   --Chaucer.
 --Tor*tu*ous*ly, adv. -- Tor*tu*ous*ness, n.
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 tortuous
      adj 1: highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure";
             "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning";
             "intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of
             refined phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a
             knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine
             maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir
             Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous
             negotiations lasting for months" [syn: Byzantine, convoluted,
              intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, tangled]
      2: marked by repeated turns and bends; "a tortuous road up the
         mountain"; "winding roads are full of surprises"; "had to
         steer the car down a twisty track" [syn: twisting, twisty,
          winding]
      3: not straightforward; "his tortuous reasoning"