involuted, a.
(ˈɪnvəl(j)uːtɪd)
[f. involute a. and n. + -ed1.]
1. a. = involute a. 2, 3.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1818) II. 327 A Brazilian beetle in my cabinet..has curious involuted suckers on its feet. 1848 Carpenter Anim. Phys. 37 Where it is to absorb as well as to secrete, it is usually involuted or folded upon itself. 1851–6 Woodward Mollusca 66 A symmetrical involuted shell. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. xvi. 392 The leaves catch many small insects which are found chiefly beneath the involuted margins. |
b. fig.
| a 1910 ‘Mark Twain’ Speeches (1910) 290 Whatever moral..you put into a speech,..gets diffused among those involuted sentences. 1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Dec. 1552/1 Clothed in orthodoxy, that could be no more than an involuted way of saying that God is love. |
2. Phys. That has passed through the process of involution: see involution 4.
| 1898 G. E. Herman Dis. Wom. ix. 94 A uterus which is imperfectly involuted receives more blood than it should. |
Hence invoˈlutedly adv., in an involuted or entangled manner.
| 1879 G. Meredith Egoist I. ix. 163 Curls, half curls, root curls, vine ringlets, wedding rings..waved or fell, waved over or up or involutedly, or strayed loose and downward. |