different between crooked vs tortuous

English

Etymology 1

From crook, equivalent to crook +? -ed.

Pronunciation

• Verb form: enPR: kro?okt, IPA^(key): /k??kt/

Verb

crooked

1. simple past tense and past participle of crook

Etymology 2

From Middle English croked, crokid, past participle of croken (“to crook, bend”). Cognate with Danish kroget (“crooked”). More at crook.

Pronunciation

• Adjective: enPR: kro?ok'?d, IPA^(key): /?k??k?d/
• pronunciation refers to adjective form.

Adjective

crooked (comparative more crooked, superlative most crooked)

1. Not straight; having one or more bends or angles.

   We walked up the crooked path to the top of the hill.

2. Set at an angle; not vertical or square.

   That picture is crooked - could you straighten it up for me?

3. (figuratively) Dishonest or illegal; corrupt.

   He was trying to interest me in another one of his crooked deals.

   • 2004, Peter Bondanella, Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos, chapter 4, 173–174:

     During the height of Italian immigration in the United States and in New York City, gangs flourished not only because of poverty but also because of political and social corruption. Policemen and politicians were often as crooked as the gang leaders themselves.

Translations

Anagrams

• red-cook

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u?s/

Adjective

tortuous (comparative more tortuous, superlative most tortuous)

1. (often figuratively) Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.
   • 2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in The New York Times,

     It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume 1, Porter & Coates, p. 243:

     The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.
2. (astrology) Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.
   • 1872, Walter William Skeat, Chaucer's A Treatise on the Astrolabe

     Infortunate ascendent tortuous.

3. (obsolete) Injurious; tortious.

Usage notes

• This term has strongly negative connotations, perhaps transferred from the similar-sounding adjective torturous.
• Not to be confused with the legal term tortious.

Related terms

Translations