contort

You don’t need to contort yourself to fit into someone else’s life, especially if that life doesn’t align with who you are or what you value.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

This is a book of endless storytelling, as characters contort themselves to please the regime’s shifting narratives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

He has the preternatural ability to contort his facial expressions ever so slightly, going from innocent to cold and malevolent and back again in a split second.

From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2025

With a swarm of dancers all wearing the same gray uniform, they contort their bodies around her, creating a collective spectacle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 2, 2025

Christina looks away, and at first I think she is bashful, but then I see her face contort like he slapped her instead of complimented her.

From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth

Nevertheless, a cheeky portion of blue-green paint contorts itself into a standing position in the corner, fighting against the weight that urges the rest of the work Earthward.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

Across two hours, Buckley’s Bride shoots, kicks, contorts, dances, scrapes, whizzes, licks and screams, all the while coming no closer to her true self than she was at the start of the film.

From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026

As Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained in dissent, this reasoning contorts the English language beyond recognition.

From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026

An actor differs: “One contorts oneself thousands of times, but dies only once … It’s simply not worth it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025

Her whole face contorts with the effort of a wink.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

"He actually looks physically contorted and conflicted," Dr Musgrove says.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

So, where did a baseball-loving future MLB star growing up in Sherman Oaks come to such a contorted conclusion?

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026

Her contorted expression is rotted by anguish, as though life’s unbearable burdens have laid waste to their latest victim.

From Salon ● Dec. 27, 2025

“I actually find him really small and contorted and tortured.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025

It cracked the top shelf, swept the beige, finger-size ceramic figurines of ballet dancers in various contorted postures to the hard floor and then landed after them.

From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Those people are some of Burning Man’s worst PR reps, contorting the meaning of its principles to suit themselves.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

I have watched videos of people doing cold plunges, giving themselves ear massages and contorting themselves into impossible stretches all in the name of fixing dysregulation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

But it’s also how she presents in the world of modeling, hooked up to wires, contorting her body to emulate a snake and sprawled across a hospital bed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025

Images of Vance have sprouted up on X contorting his face into that of, well, everything you can imagine.

From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2025

I look around a bit and a shiver runs over my entire body, contorting me.

From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell