The verb originally meant to twist tight, wrench, or strain—drawing cables taut, tuning instrument strings, setting dislocated limbs. By extension it meant to torture on the rack, twisting the body to extract information from slaves. Metaphorically, it describes distorting or perverting words from their true meaning. Peter warns that ignorant and unstable people 'twist' Paul's difficult writings as they do other Scriptures, to their own destruction. The term suggests violent manipulation of meaning, not mere misunderstanding but deliberate or reckless distortion. The torture imagery indicates spiritual self-harm through interpretive violence.