Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of twisting or turning.
- n. The condition of being twisted or turned.
- n. The stress or deformation caused when one end of an object is twisted in one direction and the other end is held motionless or twisted in the opposite direction.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act or effect of twisting; a forcible strain of a solid body by which parallel planes are turned relatively to one another round an axis perpendicular to them. The word is also used, with less propriety, in pure geometry, to signify a similar distortion without any reference to resistance.
- n. A wringing or wrenching, as of pain; a griping; tormina.
- n. In surgery, the twisting of the cut end of a small artery in a wound or after an operation, for the purpose of checking hemorrhage. The bleeding vessel is seized with a forceps, drawn out for about one fourth of an inch, and twisted round several times till it cannot untwist itself.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of turning or twisting, or the state of being twisted; the twisting or wrenching of a body by the exertion of a lateral force tending to turn one end or part of it about a longitudinal axis, while the other is held fast or turned in the opposite direction.
- n. mechanics That force with which a thread, wire, or rod of any material, returns, or tends to return, to a state of rest after it has been twisted; torsibility.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of turning or twisting, or the state of being twisted; the twisting or wrenching of a body by the exertion of a lateral force tending to turn one end or part of it about a longitudinal axis, while the other is held fast or turned in the opposite direction.
- n. (Mech.) That force with which a thread, wire, or rod of any material, returns, or tends to return, to a state of rest after it has been twisted; torsibility.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tortuous and twisted shape or position
- n. a twisting force
Etymologies
- From French, from Late Latin torsio, from Latin torqueō ("twist, turn"). See torture, -tort. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English torcion, wringing pain in the bowels, from Old French torsion, from Late Latin torsiō, torsiōn-, a wringing pain, variant of Latin tortiō, from tortus, past particple of torquēre, to twist; see torsade. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Twisting of the testicles, called torsion, can damage them and lead to antisperm antibody production.”
“Dr. Gregory Cochran, the first author on the Utah team's paper and a physicist who took up biology, said he became interested in the subject upon learning that patients with a particular Ashkenazic disease known as torsion dystonia were told by their physicians that "the positive thing is that this makes you smart.”
“The problem stems from the fact that the symptoms of mumps most especially swelling of the testicles can overlap with those caused by mononucleosis and a testicle problem called torsion.”
“Possibilities include testicular torsion, which is incredibly painful and must be dealt with immediately.”
“His study, published in 1970 in the medical journal Lancet, compared IQs of 14 children with a Jewish disease called torsion dystonia -- a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable muscle contractions that twist the body -- along with 10 of their healthy siblings, and unrelated Jewish students matched by age, sex and school.”
“Siobhan said: hes going to be fine after he got jumped on by a 3 year old child A spiral fracture (also called a torsion fracture) is a bone ...”
“To guard against the influence of air currents, the apparatus (called a torsion balance) was enclosed in a room and observed with telescopes mounted on each side.”
“Another trend, growing from Weyl's work, involved introducing various geo - metrical features, such as torsion, directly into space - time, a notable example being the theory, based on an unsymmetric gab, on which Einstein was working at the time of his death.”
“Quartz fibres have two great advantages over other forms of suspension when employed for any kind of torsion balance, from an ordinary more or less "astatic" galvanometer to the Cavendish apparatus.”
“torsion" types are more recommended than "extension" ones, because the former allows balancing and reduces friction between cables and springs on tracks.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘torsion’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Pale Fire
Words gathered while reading Pale Fire.
larches, torquate, stillicide, vermiculate, preterist, theolatry, iridule, vulgarian, cloutish, lemniscate, torsion, trillium and 176 more...
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Consider the Lobster
By David Foster Wallace
percussive, discursive, lugubrious, docent, assiduously, berm, wag, bonmot, imbroglio, telegraph, fissile, rube and 220 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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JLaughWork's Words
sesquipedalian, perspicacity, fervid, onomatopoeia, eschatology, prognostication, pedagogue, expiation, integrity, metamorphosis, supercilious, xenophilia and 229 more...
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List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 more...
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Pale Fire
rubicund, buttonhole, stillicide, preterist, curio, iridule, lemniscate, cherubic, portico, vestry, rodstein, sectile and 107 more...
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Vocalublary Awareness
Words I need to use more to increase my vocabulary.
incredulous, prolific, ubiquitous, egregious, aplomb, resilience, persevere, punctilious, perspicacious, inordinate, articulate, enunciate and 199 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, T
torquate, thalassocracy, toothsome, travois, tempestuous, tone, tincture, tripwire, tether, trill, tenacious, travesty and 355 more...
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first list
whatever words
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List Rated 4
incarnate, tapering, archery, ponceau, crappie, vandalism, conger, acrid, exhort, gleed, sponger, torsion and 1 more...
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SocialWorker32's Words
proliferous, loquacious, melancholic, pugnacious, moxie, ginormous, rudimentary, pusillanimous, quagmire, transphobia, voracity, veracity and 27 more...
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tangential
fragmented catch all
perfidious, connubial, bivouac, viaticum, limpid, chimera, lope, tepid, feted, glaucous, parley, sibilant and 84 more...
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Scripps National Spelling Bee Winners
Since 1925.
gladiolus, cerise, luxuriance, albumen, asceticism, fracas, foulard, knack, torsion, deteriorating, intelligible, interning and 73 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for torsion.

chained_bear "...the many, many cases of gross surfeit that have now replaced the frostbites, torsions and debility of the recent past..."
--Patrick O'Brian, Blue at the Mizzen, 177 Mar 27, 2008