tortuous

adj

Etymology: From Middle English tortuous, tortuose, from Anglo-Norman and Old French tortuos, from Latin tortuōsus, from tortus (“a twisting, winding”).

1. Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.

   “The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.”

   “The Southern acquired them because the little Class "B4" 0-4-0 tanks were finding heavy modern rolling stock more and more of a handful, and at war's end the railway had nothing of suitable power but short wheelbase on its books to take their place on the more tortuous of the dock lines.”

2. Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.

   “Infortunate ascendent tortuous.”

3. Injurious; tortious.