anfractuous

English

Etymology

From Late Latin anfractuosus, from Latin anfractus (“bend, curve”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ænˈfɹæktjʊəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

anfractuous (comparative more anfractuous, superlative most anfractuous) (rare, either literal or figurative)

1. sinuous, twisty, winding.
   • 1713, Henry More: Divine Dialogues, Containing sundry Disquisitions & instructions concerning the attributes of GOD And his Providence in the world.

     The anfractuous serpentine windings of a false Church-policy, that has so monstrously corrupted Religion in Doctrine and Practice, is here declared against: The Voice in the Wilderness bids take it away, that the glory of the Gospel may be manifested to all flesh in the genuine purity and simplicity thereof and so all Nations be brought under the Sceptre of Christ.

   • 1721 Thomas Gibson, M. D. Fellow of the College of Physicians, London: Anatomy of Humane Bodies epitomized.

     They are very anfractuous and winding, and (as was said) consist of many little Cells, that they should not pour out all the Seed contained in them, in one act of Copulation, but might retain it for several. They have no Communication one with another, not even in their very opening into the Urethra.

   • 1995, Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age […] , New York: Bantam Spectra, →ISBN, page 343:

     It was just that the story was anfractuous.

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

     Shy, iridescent, coltish, pelvically anfractuous, amply busted, given to diffident movements

2. craggy, rugged, coarse, rough, uneven.
   • 1920, T. S. Eliot, Poems, A. A. Knopf:

     Paint me the bold anfractuous rocks / Faced by the snarled and yelping seas.

Related terms

• anfractuousness

See also

• anfractuosity