to twist around
10
6.4
- phrasal verb
- /twɪst əˈraʊnd/
- Don't twist around my comments; I was clear about my intentions.
Examples
-
It would be too easy for them to twist your words around.
Fiction book (1999) -
Your ability to twist things around is incredible.
-
"I mean, you can take what I say and twist it around."
Fiction book (1996) -
"He's not going to do this to her, not going to subvert her question with questions of his own so he can twist things around to suit himself.
Fiction book (1996) -
It's easy for people to twist around the facts to suit their own agenda.
-
She tried to twist around his words to make it seem like he agreed with her.
Synonyms
367
6.1
To control people or things in a clever, often dishonest way
82
6.3
To change what someone said to make it mean something different, often to mislead
77
4.6
To change facts so they become false or misleading
34
7.4
To change facts or stories so they are not true
18
7.2
Change the meaning or purpose so it becomes wrong
16
7.5
To change numbers or facts dishonestly to hide the truth
7
8.0
To change a message so people cannot understand it
4
5.9
To say something that is not exactly what happened to make it look better
1
7.7
Change facts on purpose to make something seem better
To use unclear or false words to make people believe something untrue
Antonyms
How Distorted
18
7.2
- Formal
45
7.3
10
6.4
63
6.9
- Literature
123
7.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
twist + around
The core verb 'twist' already conveys the idea of bending or distorting, and the particle 'around' adds a sense of manipulation or moving something about; combined they straightforwardly yield 'distort/misrepresent'. Even though 'around' was not defined in the input, its common spatial/particle senses make the composite meaning predictable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Twist around comes from a simple picture: when you twist something around you turn it so it looks different, like bending a rope or a line of words. So twist around came to mean 'to change or bend the meaning' of what was said, often to 'fool' people.