Tor"tu*ous (?), a. [OE. tortuos, L.tortuosus, fr.tortus a twisting, winding, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist: cf. F. tortueux. See Torture.]
1.
Bent in different directions; wreathed; twisted; winding; as, a tortuous train; 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.]
Skeat.
Infortunate ascendent tortuous.
Chaucer.
--Tor"tu*ous*ly, adv. -- Tor"tu*ous*ness, n.
© Webster 1913.