détorquer

A rare, now-archaic legal and rhetorical verb: to twist or force a distorted interpretation onto someone's words, an argument, or a text, usually to gain an advantage in debate. It comes from the same Latin root as tordre (to twist) and torturer, and is mostly encountered in older or very formal writing about rhetoric and law.

• L'avocat a été accusé de détorquer les propos du témoin. — The lawyer was accused of twisting the witness's words.
• Ce commentateur détorque systématiquement le sens des citations. — This commentator systematically distorts the meaning of quotations.
• Détorquer un texte pour le faire dire autre chose est une pratique ancienne. — Twisting a text to make it say something else is an old practice.

Détorquer is considered dated/literary today — in ordinary modern speech, French says déformer les propos de quelqu'un or dénaturer un texte, not détorquer, which would sound overly formal or old-fashioned outside legal or rhetorical writing.