Tort
adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
"[…] Wrong or Iniury, is in French aptly called Tort, becauſe Iniury & wrong is wreſted or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and ſtreight. […] And Britton ſaith that Tort a la ley eſt contrarye [a wrong to the law is contrary], and as aptly for the cauſe aforeſaid is iniury in English called wrong."
- 2 Clipping of tortoise. British, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, dialectal, obsolete, slang
- 3 Clipping of tortoiseshell (“a domestic cat, guinea pig, rabbit, or other animal whose fur has black, brown, and yellow markings; a tortie”). British, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, dialectal, obsolete, slang
- 4 (law) any wrongdoing for which an action for damages may be brought wordnet
- 5 An injury or wrong. obsolete
"Then gan triumphant Trompets ſovvnd on hye, / That ſent to heuen the ecchoed report / Of their nevv ioy, and happie victory / Gainſt him, that had them long oppreſt with tort, / And faſt impriſoned in ſieged fort."
- 1 Twisted. obsolete
"And the firſt that came and gaue them moſt comfort was Henry Erle of Lãcaſter with yͤ wrie neck, called Tort coll [torticollis], who was brother to Thomas Erle of Lãcaſter yͭ was behedded, as ye haue heard before, who was a right vertuous & good knight as after ye ſhal here."
- 2 Synonym of tart (“sharp- or sour-tasting; (figuratively) keen, severe, sharp”) British, dialectal
- 3 Synonym of taut (“stretched tight; under tension”). British, dialectal, obsolete
"Yet holds he them with tortest rein, / That they may seize and entertain / The glance that to their glance opposes, / Like fiery honey sucked from roses."
- 4 Of a boat: watertight. British, dialectal, obsolete
Example
More examples"After being injured on the job, Tom's initial plan to sue his employer was halted when he was informed that the same law that had required his employer to carry Worker's Compensation Insurance for its employees also defined Tom as a statutory employee, and thus he had no legal right to file a separate tort claim."
Etymology
From Middle English tort (“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”), from Old French tort (“misdeed, wrong”) (modern French tort (“an error, wrong; a fault”)), from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, wrong”), a noun use of a neuter singular participle form of Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”), the perfect passive participle of torqueō (“to bend or twist awry, distort”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). Cognates * Galician torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong, tort”) * Italian torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) injustice, wrong”) * Norwegian Bokmål tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Norwegian Nynorsk tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Occitan tort * Old French tort (modern French tort) * Portuguese torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong”) * Spanish tuerto (“injury, offence”)
From Middle English tort, torte (“contorted, crooked; twisted”), from Old French tort, torte (“crooked; twisted”), or from its etymon Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”): see further at etymology 1.
A variant of tart.
A variant of taut.
Clipping of tortoise.
Clipping of tortoiseshell.
Related phrases
More for "tort"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.