contortion

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
contortion
    n 1: the act of twisting or deforming the shape of something
         (e.g., yourself) [syn: {contortion}, {deformation}]
    2: a tortuous and twisted shape or position; "they built a tree
       house in the tortuosities of its boughs"; "the acrobat
       performed incredible contortions" [syn: {tortuosity},
       {tortuousness}, {torsion}, {contortion}, {crookedness}]
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Contortion \Con*tor"tion\ (k[o^]n*t[^o]"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
   contortio: cf. F. contorsion. See {Contort}, and cf.
   {Torsion}.]
   A twisting; a writhing; wry motion; a twist; as, the
   contortion of the muscles of the face. --Swift.
   [1913 Webster]

         All the contortions of the sibyl, without the
         inspiration.                             --Burke.
   [1913 Webster]
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
25 Moby Thesaurus words for "contortion":
      anamorphism, anamorphosis, asymmetry, buckle, crookedness,
      detorsion, deviation, disproportion, distortion, gnarl, imbalance,
      irregularity, knot, lopsidedness, quirk, screw, torsion,
      tortuosity, turn, twist, unsymmetry, warp, wrench, wrest, wring
antiflux / dictionary / contortion
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