The act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean.
synonyms: distortion, straining, torture, twisting.
Roget 477:
intuition,
instinct,
association,
hunch,
gut feeling;
presentiment,
premonition;
rule of thumb;
superstition;
astrology†;
faith
(supposition)
514.
sophistry,
paralogy†,
perversion,
casuistry,
jesuitry,
equivocation,
evasion;
chicane,
chicanery;
quiddet†,
quiddity;
mystification;
special pleading;
speciousness
etc.
adj.;
nonsense
etc.
497;
word sense,
tongue sense.
false reasoning,
vicious reasoning,
circular reasoning;
petitio principii [Lat.],
ignoratio elenchi [Lat.];
post hoc ergo propter hoc [Lat.];
non sequitur,
ignotum per ignotius [Lat.].
misjudgment
etc.
481;
false teaching
etc.
538.
sophism,
solecism,
paralogism†;
quibble,
quirk,
elenchus†,
elench†,
fallacy,
quodlibet,
subterfuge,
subtlety,
quillet†;
inconsistency,
antilogy†;
a delusion, a mockery, and a snare"
[Denman];
claptrap,
cant,
mere words;
lame and impotent conclusion"
[Othello].
meshes of sophistry,
cobwebs of sophistry;
flaw in an argument;
weak point,
bad case.
overrefinement†;
hairsplitting
etc.
v..
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Dutch: deformatie, vervorming, verrekking