tortuous

adj

1. (figuratively, often)Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.

   “The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.”

   “The Southern acquired them because the little Class "B4" 0-4-0 tanks were finding heavy modern rolling stock more and more of a handful, and at war's end the railway had nothing of suitable power but short wheelbase on its books to take their place on the more tortuous of the dock lines.”

   “2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in The New York Times, It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.”

   “But the early Tubes still tended to follow the public streets in order to save money, hence some tortuous curves.”

2. Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.

   “Infortunate ascendent tortuous.”

3. (obsolete)Injurious; tortious.