CONTORT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does contort mean? 

• CONTORT (verb)
  The verb CONTORT has 1 sense:

1. twist and press out of shape

  Familiarity information: CONTORT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTORT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they contort    ... he / she / it contorts   
Past simple: contorted   
Past participle: contorted   
-ing form: contorting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Twist and press out of shape

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

contort; deform; distort; wring

Hypernyms (to "contort" is one way to...):

distort; twine; twist (form into a spiral shape)

Verb group:

wrench; wring (twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish)

wring (twist, squeeze, or compress in order to extract liquid)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contort"):

morph (change shape as via computer animation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

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

contortion (a tortuous and twisted shape or position)

 Context examples 

I saw a grim smile contort Mr. Rochester's lips, and he muttered—"No, by God! I took care that none should hear of it—or of her under that name."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Staying on course requires them to contort their necks by 30 degrees or more.

(Scientists discover how birds navigate crosswinds, National Science Foundation)

His limbs were convulsed and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a very paroxysm of fear.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Right in the middle there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The hands are often spared, however, sustained axial and limb contractions may lead to a state where the body is grossly contorted.

(Idiopathic Torsion Dystonia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines and a great number of contorted trees, not unlike the oak in growth, but pale in the foliage, like willows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I took hold of his clenched hand, loosened the contorted fingers, and said to him, soothingly—Sit down; I'll talk to you as long as you like, and hear all you have to say, whether reasonable or unreasonable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us and stood aside to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out at us.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)