7 uses
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Definition
marked by repeated turns and bends
or:
highly complex or intricate
or:
highly complex or intricate
- Then he plunged down beneath the tortuous vault of the spiral staircase, and once more descended.2.7.2 — Vol 2 Bk 7 Chpt 2 — A Priest and a Philosopher are.... (19% in)
- He thanked Providence for having sent this happy idea to him; but, as he was preparing to cross the Place, in order to reach the tortuous labyrinth of the city, where meander all those old sister streets, the Rues de la Barillerie, de la Vielle-Draperie, de la Savaterie, de la Juiverie, etc., still extant to-day, with their nine-story houses, he saw the procession of the Pope of the Fools, which was also emerging from the court house, and rushing across the courtyard, with great cries,...1.2.1 — Vol 1 Bk 2 Chpt 1 — From Charybdis to Scylla (29% in)
- The ground of the University was hilly; Mount SainteGeneviève formed an enormous mound to the south; and it was a sight to see from the summit of Notre-Dame how that throng of narrow and tortuous streets (to-day the Latin Quarter), those bunches of houses which, spread out in every direction from the top of this eminence, precipitated themselves in disorder, and almost perpendicularly down its flanks, nearly to the water's edge, having the air, some of falling, others of clambering up...1.3.2 — Vol 1 Bk 3 Chpt 2 — A Bird's-Eye View of Paris (40% in)
- The Rues Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin, with their innumerable ramifications, rose one after the other, like trees intertwining their branches; and then the tortuous lines, the Rues de la Plâtrerie, de la Verrerie, de la Tixeranderie, etc., meandered over all.1.3.2 — Vol 1 Bk 3 Chpt 2 — A Bird's-Eye View of Paris (61% in)
- When, still a little fellow, he had dragged himself tortuously and by jerks beneath the shadows of its vaults, he seemed, with his human face and his bestial limbs, the natural reptile of that humid and sombre pavement, upon which the shadow of the Romanesque capitals cast so many strange forms.1.4.3 — Vol 1 Bk 4 Chpt 3 — Immanis Pecoris Custos, Immanior Ipse (8% in)
- He cast a haggard eye over the double, tortuous way which fate had caused their two destinies to pursue up to their point of intersection, where it had dashed them against each other without mercy.2.9.1 — Vol 2 Bk 9 Chpt 1 — Delirium (8% in)
- Ten minutes later, the cavaliers of the watch fled in terror before a long procession of black and silent men which was descending towards the Pont an Change, through the tortuous streets which pierce the close-built neighborhood of the markets in every direction.2.10.3 — Vol 2 Bk 10 Chpt 3 — Long Live Mirth (99% in)
There are no more uses of "tortuous" in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Typical Usage
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