- deform
- deform, distort, contort, warp mean to mar or spoil a person's or thing's appearance, character, -true nature, or development by or as if by twisting.Deform is the least specific of these terms in its implications; sometimes, it carries no significance other than that expressed above; sometimes, however, it suggests a loss of some particular excellence or essential (as comeliness, perfection of line, or attractiveness){
soul-killing witches that deform the body— Shak.
}{to deform thy gentle brow with frowns— Rowe
}{I suspect Mr. Babbitt at times of an instinctive dread of organized religion, a dread that it should cramp and deform the free operations of his own mind— T. S. Eliot
}{with the best intentions in the world, Mr. Imam is incessantly at work to deform and degrade the content of poetry— Times Lit. Sup.
}Distort usually carries a clear implication of twisting or wresting away from or out of the natural, regular, or true shape, posture, or direction; the term, however, is used not only in reference to physical or material things, but also in reference to minds, judgments, facts, or statements that may be twisted by conditions, circumstances, or, when a personal agent is involved, a dominating purpose or intent{distorted as a living thing by pain— Wilde
}{the upward slant of the candlelight distorted Mary Adeline's mild features, twisting them into a frightened grin— Wharton
}{there is an element of truth in what you say, grossly as you may distort it to gratify your malicious humor— Shaw
}{some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment— Justice Holmes
}Contort implies a more involved or continuous twisting together or upon itself; it therefore differs from distort in suggesting a grotesque or a painful effect rather than a departure from the natural, the true, or the normal{that most perverse of scowls contorting her brow— Hawthorne
}{the baby's face muscles contorted in a manner that only Mammy Clo could have interpreted as an expression of merriment— Roark Bradford
}{one generation of fearless women could transform the world, by bringing into it a generation of fearless children, not contorted into unnatural shapes, but straight and candid, generous, affectionate, and free— Russell
}Warp denotes a twisting or bending or drawing out of a flat plane by some force (as drying and shrinking){the covers of the book are warped
}{the back of the chair is warped
}It often may imply the operation of a force that twists or wrests a thing so as to give it a bias, a wrong slant, an abnormal direction, or a distorted significance{cares have warped her mind
}{warped opinions
}{so they [trees] slowly come to full growth, until warped, stunted, or risen to fair and gracious height, they stand open to all the winds— Galsworthy
}{to cut me off from all natural and unconstrained relations with the rest of my fellow creatures would narrow and warp me if I submitted to it— Shaw
}{I'm sure you are disinterested ... but, frankly, I think your judgment has been warped by events— Cather
}{their lives and minds have been warped, twisted, and soured— Lardner
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
