different between digressive vs tortuous

English

Etymology

digress +? -ive

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /da?????s?v/
• Rhymes: -?s?v

Adjective

digressive (comparative more digressive, superlative most digressive)

1. Marked by digression; rambling

Derived terms

• digressiveness

Related terms

• digress
• digression

Translations

French

Adjective

digressive

1. feminine singular of digressif

Italian

Adjective

digressive

1. feminine plural of digressivo

Anagrams

• degressivi, divergessi

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