twisted

The sense "intertwined" comes from twist (verb) by the late 15th century. The sense "mentally disturbed, perverted" is probably from twist (“mental peculiarity, perversion”, noun), which is attested by 1811.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtwɪstɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪstɪd

twisted (comparative more twisted, superlative most twisted)

1. Consisting of two or more threads, strands or the like intertwined; formed by twisting or twining.
2. (of a person, also with up) Mentally or emotionally distorted or unsound; perverted.

   twisted sense of humor

   The murders were committed by a twisted sociopath.

   • 2006, Noire , Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:

     I was a hard niggah, but not twisted enough to eat and socialize with my peeps knowing I was planning on robbing them before the night was over.

   • 1971, Hunter S Thompson, “Welcome to Las Vegas”, in The Great Shark Hunt, Simon and Schuster, published 2011, →ISBN, page 531:

     It was almost noon, and we still had more than a hundred miles to go. They would be tough miles. Very soon, I knew, we would both be completely twisted. But there was no going back, and no time to rest. We would have to ride it out.

3. (by extension) Bent out of shape or out of place; distorted; contorted.
   1. (of words) Having the intended meaning altered or misrepresented; misunderstood.

      Don't get this twisted. Just because I don't hate you doesn't mean we're friends.

   2. (of facial expressions) Distorted or contorted by tensing the facial muscles.
4. (originally US) Under heavy influence of intoxicants, usually alcohol and marijuana; very intoxicated.

   Dude I’m so twisted right now.

   • 1958, John Clellon Holmes, The Horn‎, Open Road Media, published 2015, →ISBN:

     "Man is he high!" someone whispered. "Man, he's twisted! But on what? On what?"

5. (of the stem of a wine glass) Having a spiral ornament inside.
6. (figurative, obsolete) Intimately associated or connected; united; combined.

twisted

1. simple past and past participle of twist

• (contorted): wry, pretzelled, out of shape
• (wound spirally): coiled
• (mentally disturbed): deranged, disturbed, perverted, sick, warped
• (intoxicated): See Thesaurus:drunk or Thesaurus:stoned

• “twisted adj.²”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “twisted, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “twisted”, in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University; reproduced on Wordnik: “having an intended meaning altered or misrepresented”
• “twisted”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

• Dewitts