Modifies a noun

• vein: These ballooned tortuous veins are the varicose veins you can see just under the skin.

• negotiation: BAC's stance in the tortuous negotiations about a move to Filton has been endorsed by the Charity Commissioners.

• path: I tried to smile - to comprehend what tortuous path had led her here?

• journey: In a tortuous journey across to Lesotho, he reaches the final crossing, the river gorge which forms the frontier.

• route: Cons: A tortuous route from main road to car park site.

• passage: This little working was remarkably narrow less than 50 cm in places, and had a tortuous entrance passage.

Modifying Another Word

• somewhat: In particular, the format of the revision is somewhat tortuous.

• rather: It's 20+ years since I read Tolkien, any Tolkien, but I can still remember it being a rather tortuous process.

• slightly: Cons: Slightly tortuous route out of the car park.

• sometimes: Petzold has deliberately chosen a slow, meandering, sometimes tortuous pace in order to build tension.

• often: The prose can be predictable, the plot often tortuous.

• very: It's all getting very tortuous again, isn't it?

Used with adjective complement

• get: And the jokes get worse as the evening wears on, and of course they get funnier as they get more tortuous.