Also 7 amf-. [a. Fr. anfractuosité, f. L. anfractuōs-us: see prec. and -ITY.] The quality of being anfractuous.
1. lit. Sinuosity, circuitousness; usually concr. in pl. winding or tortuous crevices, channels, passages.
1596. Lowe, Art Chirurg. (1634), 241. The vayne goeth aboue the artier, but not right lyne as other parts doe, but in anfractuosities, like unto a Woodbine.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Amfractuosity.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. v. 182. Upon the bottom of the sea following its curvatures, declivities and anfractuosities.
1875. H. James, Rod. Hudson, vii. 233. Chance anfractuosities of ruin in the upper portions of the Coliseum.
1877. Havard’s Pict. Holland, 406. The quarry is usually entered by an anfractuosity of the mountain.
b. spec. The sinuous depressions separating the convolutions of the brain.
1687. Phil. Trans., XVI. 373. The Anfractuosities of the Brain.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 383/2. The principal anfractuosities sink more than a line’s depth into the substance of the hemisphere.
2. fig. Involution, intricacy, obliquity; concr. in pl.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. 1834, 231. The sweet labyrinth and mellifluent anfractuosities of a laciuious delectation.
1780. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), IV. 336. Sir, among the anfractuosities of the human mind I know not if it may not be one, that there is a superstitious reluctance to sit for a picture.
1879. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 592. The student of human nature will perceive subtle hints of the various anfractuosities of their minds.
