... of fine-tooth comb, are now established expressions whose illogicality it is pedantic to object to. tortuous, torturous. Do not confuse: tortuous means (1) twisting, e.g. Through tortuous ... verge on, upon, to border on, e.g. He told two or three stories verging on the improper (John Galsworthy), is in origin a different word from verge in verge to, towards to incline towards, approach, ... reasons; they were usually so bloody tortuous it took you a week to work them out (John le Carr‚). Torturous means 'involving torture, excruciating', e.g. Torturously original inlay-work...