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The obtaining of property from another by an intentional active distortion of the truth.

nflammable powder. -- Club root (Bot.), a disease of cabbages, by which the roots become distorted and the heads spoiled. -- Club topsail (Naut.), a kind of gaff topsail, used mostly by yachts having a fore-and-aft rig. It has a short "club" or "jack yard" to increase its spread.

A short, variously distorted foot; also, the deformity, usually congenital, which such a foot exhibits; talipes.

A short, distorted hand; also, the deformity of having such a hand.

To twist, or twist together; to turn awry; to bend; to distort; to wrest. The vertebral arteries are variously contorted. Ray. Kant contorted the term category from the proper meaning of attributed. Sir W. Hamilton.

To contract; to draw together; to cause to shrink or wrinkle; to distort. [Obs.] Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, And whine aloud for mercy. Shak.

Not straightforward; deviating from rectitude; distorted from the right. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Deut. xxxii. 5.

Unnatural or distorted in form; having a deformity; misshapen; disfigured; as, a deformed person; a deformed head. -- De*form"ed*ly, adv. -- De*form"ed*ness, n.

he state of being deformed; want of proper form or symmetry; any unnatural form or shape; distortion; irregularity of shape or features; ugliness. To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body. Shak.

e, as the air, steam, and other gases and vapors. -- Elastic limit (Mech.), the limit of distortion, by bending, stretching, etc., that a body can undergo and yet return to its original form when relieved from stress; also, the unit force or stress required to produce this distortion. Within the elastic limit the dist…

A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It is noticed particularly at the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.

The small distortion of an astronomical instrument caused by the weight of its parts; the amount to be added or substracted from the observed readings of the instrument to correct them for this distortion. The flexure of a curve (Math.), the bending of a curve towards or from a straight line.

Having prominent and distorted or rolling eyes. Ascham.

Seeing everything through a medium which discolors or distorts. "Green-eyed jealousy." Shak.

A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face. Moving his face into such a hideons grimace, that every feature of it appeared under a different distortion. Addison.…

Distorted; crabbed.

aving the expression of one wasted by want or suffering; hollow-eyed; having the features distorted or wasted, or anxious in appearance; as, haggard features, eyes. Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look. Dryden.

and also on the Asiatic side. In the breeding season the male has a large dorsal hump and distorted jaws.

A distorted expression of the face, or an indirect glance of the eye, conveying a sinister or immodest suggestion. With jealous leer malign Eyed them askance. Milton. She gives the leer of invitation. Shak. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer. Pope.

. In addition there may be wasting of the muscles, falling out of the hair and nails, and distortion of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.Mycobacterium leprae, curable in most cases by therapy with a combination of antibiotics, but cases resistant t…