ppl. a. [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. 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. Joanna 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 Writhedly adv., -ness. rare.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Contorte,… frowardly: obscurely: intricately: writhedly.
1755. Scott, Contorteousness, writhedness.
