5 uses
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Definition
to alter something in an unnatural or untrue way
- And since he was certain that his accomplice would accept this audacious distortion and go along with it, it was not a risky tactic at all.4.8 - Table Talk (57% in)
- It comes from an era of superstitious contrition, when the idea of humanity was demeaned and distorted into a caricature, a fearful era, when harmony and health were considered suspicious and devilish, whereas infirmity in those days was as good as a passport to heaven.4.1 - A Necessary Purchase (61% in)
- And then Joachim heard the word "Enter!" in the resounding baritone of the occupant, with that exotic, tapped r sound and a diphthongized distortion of the vowel—and saw his cousin vanish into the twilight of Dr. Krokowski's analytical pit.6.1 - Changes (**% in)
- It did not distort his features or diminish him as a man, and its very incomprehensibility—and no one would have had the impudence to attribute it to the quantities of wine he had enjoyed—lent him something grand and majestic, so that they all deferred to him and did not attempt another bite of food.7.3 - Vingt et un (42% in)
- The body of sound, though not in any way distorted, had suffered a diminution in perspective; it was, if one may use a visual comparison for an audible phenomenon, as if one were gazing at a painting through the wrong end of opera glasses, so that it looked distant and small, but without forfeiting any definition of line or brilliance of color.7.7 - Fullness of Harmony (11% in)
There are no more uses of "distort" in The Magic Mountain.
Typical Usage
(best examples)