tor ‧ tu ‧ ous /ˈtɔːtʃuəs $ ˈtɔːr-/ BrE AmE adjective
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: tortueux , from Latin tortuosus , from tortus ; ⇨ ↑ torture 1 ]
1 . a tortuous path, stream, road etc has a lot of bends in it and is therefore difficult to travel along:
a tortuous path over the mountains to Kandahar
2 . complicated and long and therefore confusing:
The book begins with a long, tortuous introduction.
—tortuously adverb