to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed: Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
2.
to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent: to distort the facts.
3.
Electronics.to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately by changing the frequencies or unequally changing the delay or amplitude of the components of the output wave.
Origin: 1580–90; < Latindistortus (past participle of distorquēre to distort), equivalent to dis-dis-1 + tor(qu)- (stem of torquēre to twist) + -tus past participle suffix
Related forms
dis·tort·er, noun
dis·tor·tive, adjective
non·dis·tort·ing, adjective
non·dis·tort·ing·ly, adverb
non·dis·tor·tive, adjective
o·ver·dis·tort, verb (used with object)
un·dis·tort·ing, adjective
Synonyms 2. pervert, misconstrue, twist, falsify, misstate. See misrepresent.
1580s, from L. distortus, pp. of distorquere "to twist different ways, distort," from dis- "completely" + torquere "to twist" (see thwart). Related: Distorted; distorting.