All 3 Uses of
contort
in
The House of the Seven Gables
- Face to face with this picture, on entering the apartment, Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon came to a pause; regarding it with a singular scowl, a strange contortion of the brow, which, by people who did not know her, would probably have been interpreted as an expression of bitter anger and ill-will.†
Chpt 2contortion = the act of twisting or bending to an unnatural shape
- In this particular case, however mechanical and innocuous it might be at other times, Hepzibah's contortion of brow served her in good stead.†
Chpt 3 *
- How could he,—so yellow as she was, so wrinkled, so sad of mien, with that odd uncouthness of a turban on her head, and that most perverse of scowls contorting her brow,—how could he love to gaze at her?†
Chpt 7contorting = twisting or bending to an unnatural shape
Definition:
twist or bend to an unnatural shape -- something such as the human body, a facial expression, or the truth