writhed, ppl. a.
(raɪðd)
[f. writhe v.1 + -ed1. Cf. wreathed ppl. a.]
1. That has undergone writhing, contortion, or twisting; twisted.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. lxxxiii. 764 The stem [of the smaller cedar] is croked or writhed. 1581 T. Howell Deuises H ij, Wrythed wrinckles [shall] peere on blemisht browe. 1590 P. Barrough Meth. Physick i. xliv. (1596) 67 A writhed linnen cloth. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. 50 The writhed and wrested strings of a brake. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica (1789) 396 The angular and variously writhed Worm-tube. |
| transf. 1562 Cooper Answ. Defence Truth 84 All, that here you haue vttered, be nothinge but wrythed coniectures. |
b. Of the features, etc.: Subjected to contortion or writhing; contorted, wry.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Laide grimace, a writhed mouth. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. Law 96 Snuffing with a wrythed nose the Amber. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 150 They have a black and wrythed Face. 1802 J. Baillie 2nd Pt. Ethwald ii. ii, There be some Whose writhed features..do stare upon you. 1830 Tennyson ‘Clear-headed friend’ iii, Those writhed limbs of lightning speed. 1868 Kinglake Crimea IV. 292 A breed of the human race whose numberless cages of teeth stared out..from between the writhed lips. |
2. Fashioned by or as by twisting or convolution.
| 1552 Huloet, Writhed, or wynded one in another as a cord or rope is lincke to lincke, versatilis. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Funes intorti, writhed cordes. 1802 Leyden Mermaid i, How softly mourns the writhed shell Of Jura's shore, its parent sea! 1858 Skyring Builders' Prices 55 Every inch opening in the writhed rails. |
b. Of pillars, etc.:
= wreathed ppl. a. 3 a.
| 1825 Scott Talism. xxvii, The fantastic forms of writhed pillars. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps iii. 92 The dark..porches and writhed pillars of Verona. |
Hence
ˈwrithedly adv.,
-ness.
rare.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Contorte,..frowardly: obscurely: intricately: writhedly. 1755 Scott, Contorteousness, writhedness. |