highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious; the Byzantine tax structure; Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship; convoluted legal language; convoluted reasoning; the plot was too involved; a knotty problem; got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering; Oh, what a tangled web we weave- Sir Walter Scott; tortuous legal procedures; tortuous negotiations lasting for months

[ Syn: byzantine , convoluted , involved , knotty , tangled ]

marked by repeated turns and bends; a tortuous road up the mountain; winding roads are full of surprises; had to steer the car down a twisty track

[ Syn: twisting , twisty , winding , voluminous ]

not straightforward; his tortuous reasoning'