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Tending to pervert.

re or reason; not adapted to the end; utterly and glaringly foolish; unreasonably absurd; perverted. "Most preposterous conclusions." Shak. Preposterous ass, that never read so far! Shak.

To evade by a quibble; to transgress; to pervert. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

To render worthless by admixture; to adulterate; to damage; to pervert; as, to sophisticate wine. Howell. To sophisticate the understanding. Southey. Yet Butler professes to stick to plain facts, not to sophisticate, not to refine. M. Arnold. They purchase but sophisticated ware. Dryden.

To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound. 2 Tim. iii. 14.

Hence, to turn from the true form or meaning; to pervert; as, to twist a passage cited from an author.

Contorted; crooked spirally; subjected to torsion; hence, perverted. Twisted curve (Geom.), a curve of double curvature. See Plane curve, under Curve. -- Twisted surface (Geom.), a surface described by a straight line moving according to any law whatever, yet so that the consecutive positions of the line shall not be…

To turn aside from the true direction; to cause to bend or incline; to pervert. This first avowed, nor folly warped my mind. Dryden. I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy. Addison. We are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects, and warp the understandings, of men. Southey.…

To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert. You wrenched your foot against a stone. Swift.

To turn from truth; to twist from its natural or proper use or meaning by violence; to pervert; to distort. Wrest once the law to your authority. Shak. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor. Ex. xxiii. 6. Their arts of wresting, corrupting, and false interpreting the holy text. South.

To distort; to pervert; to wrest. How dare men thus wring the Scriptures Whitgift.

To wrest; to distort; to pervert. The reason which he yieldeth showeth the least part of his meaning to be that whereunto his words are writhed. Hooker.

Wrested; perverted. He . . . puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers. Atterbury. Wry face, a distortion of the countenance indicating impatience, disgust, or discomfort; a grimace.