資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Tortuous \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.

資料來源 : WordNet®

tortuousness
     n : a tortuous and twisted shape or position; "they built a tree
         house in the tortuosities of its boughs"; "the acrobat
         performed incredible contortions" [syn: {tortuosity}, {torsion},
          {contortion}, {crookedness}]