different between tortuous vs turning

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

English

Etymology

turn +? -ing

Pronunciation

• enPR: tûr?-n?ng, IPA^(key): /?t??.n??/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [?t??.n??]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [?t?.n??]
• Rhymes: -??(r)n??
• Hyphenation: turn?ing
• Rhymes: -??(?)n??

Noun

turning (plural turnings)

1. (Britain) A turn or deviation from a straight course.

   Take the second turning on the left.

2. (field hockey) At hockey, a foul committed by a player attempting to hit the ball who interposes their body between the ball and an opposing player trying to do the same.
4. The shaping of wood or metal on a lathe.
5. The act of turning.
6. (plural only) Shavings produced by turning something on a lathe.

   The turnings get into your trouser turnups!

Synonyms

• (shavings): swarf

Derived terms

• turning point

Translations

Verb

turning

1. present participle of turn

   The Earth is turning about its axis as we speak.

   He made wooden soldiers by turning them on a hand lathe.

Anagrams

• Ringnut, runting