Defn: Swelled out at intervals like a knotted cord.
TORTUOSE
Tor"tu*ose`, a. Etym: [See Tortuous.]
Defn: Wreathed; twisted; winding. Loudon
TORTUOSLTY
Tor`tu*os"l*ty, n. Etym: [L.tortuositas: cf. F.tortuosite.]
Defn: the quality or state of being tortuous.
TORTUOUS
Tor"tu*ous, a. Etym: [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.)