twistical

English edit

Etymology edit

twist +‎ -ical

Adjective edit

twistical (comparative more twistical, superlative most twistical)

(archaic, colloquial, regional) Crooked; tortuous. [From late 18th century]
- 1791, Isaac Hunt, Rights of Englishman‎^[1], London: J. Bew, page 28:
  […] I will meet Mr. Paine again at Point-no-Point, very properly so named because, as he observes, “it continually recedes at a distance a-head; and when you have got as far as you can go there is no point at all.” So it is with Mr. Paine’s twistical reflections on religion and government:
- 1871, John William De Forest, Overland, New York: Sheldon, Chapter 15, p. 79,^[2]
  He had queer twistical ways of reasoning which often proved the contrary of what he seemed to want to prove;
- 1965, Sid Fleischman, The Ghost in the Noonday Sun‎^[3], Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter , p. 11:
  […] then he showed the white of his teeth in a twistical smile.
- 2001, Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys‎^[4], London: Scribner, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 136:
  ‘There’s many still believes a priest could make a toad of you. All it would take was a twistical squint off his eyes. […] ’
(archaic, colloquial, regional) Perverse; unfair; dishonest. [From late 18th century]
- c. 1797 John Leland, remark made while preaching, cited in Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society, Berkshire Book, 1892, Volume 1, p. 283,^[5]
  Godward he is an excellent man, manward he is rather twistical.
- 1836, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker, Halifax, NS: J. Howe, p. 111,^[6]
  […] well, he was a deep, sly, twistical lookin chap, as you een amost ever seed.
- 1936, Helen Albee Monsell, chapter 15, in The Secret of the Chestnut Tree‎^[7], Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, pages 156-157:
  […] if you can fix Melinda Smoot for behaving so twistical to her, I’ll thank you forever.

References edit

“twistical”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.