CONTORTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contortion mean? 

• CONTORTION (noun)
  The noun CONTORTION has 2 senses:

1. the act of twisting or deforming the shape of something (e.g., yourself)

2. a tortuous and twisted shape or position

  Familiarity information: CONTORTION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTORTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of twisting or deforming the shape of something (e.g., yourself)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

contortion; deformation

Hypernyms ("contortion" is a kind of...):

change of shape (an action that changes the shape of something)

Derivation:

contort (twist and press out of shape)

contortionist (an acrobat able to twist into unusual positions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A tortuous and twisted shape or position

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

contortion; crookedness; torsion; tortuosity; tortuousness

Context example:

the acrobat performed incredible contortions

Hypernyms ("contortion" is a kind of...):

distorted shape; distortion (a shape resulting from distortion)

Derivation:

contort (twist and press out of shape)

contortionist (an acrobat able to twist into unusual positions)

 Context examples 

A fiendish rage animated him as he said this; his face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold; but presently he calmed himself and proceeded—

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

This was the contortion of the Colonel’s face.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he ran he jerked his hands up and down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most extraordinary contortions.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“My Agnes!” he exclaimed, with a sickly, angular contortion of himself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Ben Gunn was on deck alone, and as soon as we came on board he began, with wonderful contortions, to make us a confession.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Nor would you, or, rather, should you, accept the ravings and writhings and agonized contortions of those two lunatics to-night as a convincing portrayal of love.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In the middle of the floor of the empty room was huddled the figure of an enormous man, his clean-shaven, swarthy face grotesquely horrible in its contortion and his head encircled by a ghastly crimson halo of blood, lying in a broad wet circle upon the white woodwork.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At last I rose to go to bed, much to the relief of the sleepy waiter, who had got the fidgets in his legs, and was twisting them, and hitting them, and putting them through all kinds of contortions in his small pantry.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For anything that I can perceive to the contrary, it is still probable that my children may be reduced to seek a livelihood by personal contortion, while Mrs. Micawber abets their unnatural feats by playing the barrel-organ.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)