Definition of CONTORT

Choose the Right Synonym for contort

deform, distort, contort, warp means to mar or spoil by or as if by twisting. deform may imply a change of shape through stress, injury, or accident of growth. a face deformed by hatred distort and contort both imply a wrenching from the natural or normal, but contort suggests a more involved twisting and a more grotesque and painful result. the odd camera angle distorts the figure disease had contorted her body warp indicates an uneven shrinking that bends or twists out of a flat plane. warped floorboards

Examples of contort in a Sentence

His body contorted with pain. The boy contorted his body to squeeze through the gate. Her face was contorted with rage.

Recent Examples on the Web The sport, as a whole, should be contorting itself to make this work. — Jon Wertheim, SI.com, "Mailbag: Instead of a Separate Competition, Let's Add Women to the Laver Cup," 25 Sep. 2019 As revelations of wrongdoing have piled up over the last two years, reactionary pundits (and, in one famous case, a family court judge) have contorted themselves to safeguard the innocence of men. — Marella Gayla, BostonGlobe.com, "In ‘Good Boys,’ sixth grade just isn’t what it used to be," 15 Aug. 2019 The wing is an oval, but while in flight, the pressure would force that to contort into a circle. — Molly Quell, Ars Technica, "The Flying V would be unlike any other passenger airliner, even in 2040," 22 Oct. 2019 That idea is now commonplace in apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, which use AI software to instantly contort images of cats, nature scenes and people’s faces, often with convincing results. — Anchorage Daily News, "Panic over Russian company’s FaceApp is sign of new distrust of Internet," 19 July 2019 The point is the singularity, an infinitely dense, unimaginably small dot contorting space so radically that anything nearby falls straight in, leaving behind a vacuum. — Quanta Magazine, "Black Hole Firewalls Could Be Too Tepid to Burn," 22 Aug. 2018 Upon learning this, Archie’s anger contorts into anguish. — Sonia Rao, Washington Post, "How ‘Riverdale’ addressed Luke Perry’s untimely death," 10 Oct. 2019 GuiZhang Niu starred in a classic pole act, contorting his muscular frame into astonishing poses like a human flag. — Jake Fischer, SI.com, "How Red Panda Became the NBA's Favorite Halftime Performer," 28 Aug. 2019 My face contorts to some ugly sob shape When Denny and Eve welcome their first child, Enzo gets a little human sister, Zoe (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). — Carly Mallenbaum, USA TODAY, "Here's how much I cried watching the new dog movie 'Art of Racing in the Rain'," 9 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'contort.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.