verb
distort
dihs-TAWT
verb
1
To twist something out of its normal shape.
"The heat began to distort the plastic frame."
"A fisheye lens distorts the edges of the image."
2
To give a false or misleading version of the truth.
"The article distorted what the scientist had actually said."
How to Use Distort
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo warp something's shape, or twist the truth so it becomes misleading.
Common pairings
distort the truth
distort the image
distort reality
Word Forms
more distort comparative, distorted past tense, distorts singular, most distort superlative
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Etymology
From Latin distortum, the past participle of distorquēre, "to twist" or "to torture" — combining dis- ("apart") with torquēre ("to twist"), the same root that gives us torque and torture.