a. Also 4–6 torcious, 6 torteouse. [a. Anglo-Fr. torcious (14th c.), f. stem of torcion, tortion: see prec. and -IOUS. In use associated with TORT sb., as if from tort + -eous: cf. righteous, wrongous, etc.]
† 1. Wrongful, injurious, hurtful; illegal. Obs.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. ii. (Skeat), l. 73. Than wer tort & forthe [? force] nought worthe an haw about, and pleasen no men, but thilke greuous and torcious been in might and in doinge.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 217 b. A cruell man and a torcious vsurper.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 36. The deuil … inticed him (oh, torteouse serpent!) to eat of the forbidden fruite.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. ii. 18. Ne ought he car’d whom he endamaged By tortious wrong, or whom bereav’d of right.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, xv. When … tortious death was true Devotion’s meed.
2. Law. Pertaining to or of the nature of a tort.
(Early quots. show the gradual development of sense.)
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 90. The more … that he came to the dede by a lawfull meane, than by a torcyous meane.
1619. Dalton, Country Just., xciii. (1630), 237. Where the arrest is tortious,… there the killing of him that maketh such an unlawful arrest, is … manslaughter onely.
1671. F. Philipps, Reg. Necess., 259. The parties … endeavouring such breaches of Priviledge, should not take advantage de son tort, of their own wrongs or tortious doings.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. ix. 150. Unless the owner … will declare his continuance to be tortious, or, in common language, wrongful.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., II. viii. 500. To restrain threatened irremediable injuries to property by acts of a tortious kind.
1907. Law Rep., in Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz., June, 220. The animal … would have done no harm but for the tortious act of a third person.
† 3. Wrong, incorrect, improper. Obs. rare.
1644. [H. Parker], Jus Pop., 66. A tortious, unnatural sense of the words.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, I. ii. 106. It seemes a very Tortious and improper answer.
¶ 4. Misused for TORTUOUS.
1682. in R. Burthogge, Argt. Infants Bapt., iv. (1684), 170. The most involved, tortious, intricate, that ever you heard of, except Origens Allegorical and Mystical Commentaries.
