Dictionary

intort en · VERB

Etymology

Latin intortus, past participle of intoquere (“to twist”) equivalent to in- (“in-”) + torquereto (“twist”).

Meanings

1. To twist in and out; to twine; to wreathe, wind, or wring.
   • With reverend hand the king presents the gold, / Which round th′ intorted horns the gilder roll′d, / So wrought, as Pallas might with pride behold. 1726, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, The Odyssey of Homer, published 2008, page 44:
2. To twist inwards.
   • 2002, Sunita Agarwal, Athiya Agarwal, David J. Apple, Textbook of Ophthalmology, Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, India, psge 338, If we tilt the head to the right, the right eye will intort and the left eye will extort. […] So, if the right eye intorts, it means the superiors in that eye (RSR and RSO) work and if the left eye extorts it means the inferiors of that eye (LIO and LIR) work.
   • For the right labyrinth, however, both vertical semicircular canals produce clockwise slow phases (ipsilateral eye intorts, contralateral eye extorts). 2003, Thomas Brandt, Vertigo: Its Multisensory Syndromes, page 194:
   • These conditions are reversed after every hemicycle, i.e. the previously higher intorted eye is then lowered and extorted, and the previously lowered extorted eye becomes higher and intorted (Fig. 3.7). 2011, Peter Urban, Louis R. Caplan, Brainstem Disorders, page 124:
   • Figure 18.12. The needles are withdrawn from the sclera, and the sutures are pulled to advance the anterior tendon laterally, while the eye is intorted by rotating it with the large hook. 2007, Kenneth Weston Wright, Color Atlas of Strabismus Surgery: Strategies and Techniques, page 185:

Forms

Antonyms

extort (antonym(s) of “twist inwards”)

Synonyms

contort (twist) · writhe (twist)