He went through a series of amazing contortions to get Karen a work permit.contortioncon‧tor‧tion /kənˈtɔːʃən $ -ɔːr-/ noun 
I could not force my body into the contortions required by classical ballet. facial contortions2[uncountable] when something is twisted so that it does not have its normal shape: involuntary muscle contortion3[countable] something difficult you have to do in order to achieve something: He went through a series of amazing contortions to get Karen a work permit.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Some bills go through numerous legislative contortions before they are approved.
- the involuntary contortion of muscles
- Torrence dances with the lithe contortions of a cobra.
- By a contortion of semantics he led the so-called Liberal Party.
- He places a tiny wire runner with effortless case, in comparison with my desperate finger-wrestling, rope-biting contortions.
- His thin body was rigid and they could see the contortions of his facial muscles beneath the skin.
- I went to a gory pile of dead human forms in every kind of stiff contortion.
- It frees him from the awkward contortions of hand and wrist that make violin lessons and practice all too necessary.
- One contortion flows into another, each stunt is more beautiful than the last.
- Two wounded people, he will joke during their nightly contortions.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY He went through a series of amazing contortions to get Karen a work permit.
1[countable] a twisted position or movement that looks surprising or strange: He went through a series of amazing contortions to get Karen a work permit. I could not force my body into the contortions required by classical ballet. facial contortions2[uncountable] when something is twisted so that it does not have its normal shape: involuntary muscle contortion3[countable] something difficult you have to do in order to achieve something: He went through a series of amazing contortions to get Karen a work permit.