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

As much as the series is Mary’s bluestocking origin story, it also spells her freedom, which comes from no longer trying to impress or contort herself to fit the expectations of others.

From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026

Mr. Ali’s attempt to contort it to reflect the controversy over immigration policy is ham-handed and confused.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025

I cannot seem to contort myself back into the shape of a dutiful child.

From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black

And when Maddie’s disorder tells her she needs to stay in control, she contorts all of this trendy pastel-colored, serif-typefaced wellness to her favor, using it to fuel her harmful compulsions.

From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026

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

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

From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026

At one point, a dancer contorts herself as she carries Particle, tucked in a birdcage, across a room.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2024

Her whole face contorts with the effort of a wink.

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

Yu Ji’s cement sculptures take the shape of contorted human bodies—not uncomfortable but limberly twisted and folded—that are missing limbs; their contrasting materials and postures at once suggest permanence and evanescence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 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

Acquiring the semiautonomous Danish territory would further elevate his claims to greatness and the status of legend in his own contorted reality.

From Salon ● Jan. 13, 2026

Natalie said at times Beth would spend hours lying with her body "contorted" into specific positions that enabled her to bear the agony.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 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

Unbeknownst to the congressman, the recent kindergarten graduate ate up the C-SPAN camera, smiling, contorting, and making faces behind his dad’s back.

From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2024

He tried to set his expression into “bravery in the grip of terrible adversity” but it was difficult with the wind contorting his face as if he were in a free fall without a parachute.

From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith