Contortion

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Contortion \Con*tor"tion\ (k[o^]n*t[^o]"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
     contortio: cf. F. contorsion. See {Contort}, and cf.
     {Torsion}.]
     A twisting; a writhing; wry motion; a twist; as, the
     contortion of the muscles of the face. --Swift.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           All the contortions of the sibyl, without the
           inspiration.                             --Burke.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  contortion
       n 1: the act of twisting or deforming the shape of something
            (e.g., yourself) [syn: {deformation}]
       2: 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}, {tortuousness},
           {torsion}, {crookedness}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  25 Moby Thesaurus words for "contortion":
     anamorphism, anamorphosis, asymmetry, buckle, crookedness,
     detorsion, deviation, disproportion, distortion, gnarl, imbalance,
     irregularity, knot, lopsidedness, quirk, screw, torsion,
     tortuosity, turn, twist, unsymmetry, warp, wrench, wrest, wring