Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: tortueux, from Latin tortuosus, from tortus; TORTURE1

tortuous

 adjective
     
tor‧tu‧ous
1 a tortuous path, stream, road etc has a lot of bends in it and is therefore difficult to travel along:
a tortuous path over the mountains to Kandahar
2 complicated and long and therefore confusing:
The book begins with a long, tortuous introduction.
—tortuously adverb
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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