Literary notes about Contorted (AI summary)
The word "contorted" stands out as a striking descriptive tool that vividly captures both physical deformation and emotional turmoil. It is frequently used to depict faces twisted in grief, rage, pain, or shock—whether it's a visage momentarily distorted into a mask ([1]) or a countenance full of rage and despair ([2], [3]). At other times it lends itself to describing the warped forms of nature, such as a gnarled trunk casting ominous shadows ([4]) or the twisted layers of rock that speak of relentless natural forces ([5], [6]). Authors also extend its use to characterize bodies and limbs in states of convulsive distress or violent reaction ([7], [8]), making "contorted" a versatile term that enriches both the visual and emotional textures of a narrative ([9], [10]).
- [His face, above her head, is contorted for a moment, then hardens into a mask]
— from Loyalties by John Galsworthy - Her face was contorted with rage, her eyes were flaming.
— from Blackthorn Farm by Arthur Applin - A strange smile contorted his face, a pitiful, sad, weak smile, a smile of despair.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - One great branch stretched from the old contorted trunk across the path and threw the darkest shadow on that one spot.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - From the immediate proximity of the igneous rock the stratified masses were very much contorted, and no regular dip was observable.
— from Western Himalaya and TibetA Narrative of a Journey Through the Mountains of Northern India During the Years 1847-8 by Thomas Thomson - We then get to the region of the grey olive groves, the trees with their contorted, thickly-set branches and pointed leaves.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Right in the middle there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching.
— from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - The agony of those contorted limbs struck me with a spasm of pain and blurred my eyes with tears.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - After all, nature was not dumb in the poor fellow, and his human sensibility, all maliciously contorted as it was, quivered no less than any other.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - His wet lips writhed back over his teeth, and his contorted features wove the leer of the abyss.
— from Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1930
