verb (used with object)
- to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed: Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
- to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent: to distort the facts.
- Electronics. to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately by changing the frequencies or unequally changing the delay or amplitude of the components of the output wave.
verb (tr)
- (often passive) to twist or pull out of shape; make bent or misshapen; contort; deform
- to alter or misrepresent (facts, motives, etc)
- electronics to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately, changing the shape of the waveform
1580s, from Latin distortus, past participle of distorquere “to twist different ways, distort,” from dis- “completely” + torquere “to twist” (see thwart). Related: Distorted; distorting.