anfractuosities

Noun

anfractuosity (countable and uncountable, plural anfractuosities)

1. A winding channel or crevice, such as occur in the depths of the sea or in mountains.
   • Here endeth the doctrine of the right-angled sphericalls, the whole diatyposis wherof is in the Equisolea or hippocrepidian diagram, whose most intricate amfractuosities, renvoys, various mixture of analogies, and perturbat situation of proportionall termes, cannot choose but be pervious to the...1645, Sir Thomas Urquhart, The Trissotetras, reprinted in The works of sir Thomas Urquhart (1834), T. Maitland ed., p. 95
2. One of the fissures (sulci) separating the convolutions of the brain, or, by analogy, in the mind.
   • The vayne goeth aboue the artier, but not right lyne as other parts doe, but in anfractuosities, like unto a Woodbine.1596, Peter Lowe, Whole Courese of Chirurgerie 241 cited in 1877, A new English Dictionary on Historical Principles V1 P1, 322