CONTORTED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does contorted mean? 

• CONTORTED (adjective)
  The adjective CONTORTED has 1 sense:

1. twisted (especially as in pain or struggle)

  Familiarity information: CONTORTED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTORTED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Twisted (especially as in pain or struggle)

Synonyms:

contorted; writhed; writhen

Context example:

my writhen features

Similar:

crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)

 Context examples 

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)

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)

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 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)

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)

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)