Meaning of byzantine

(adj) of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church or the rites performed in it; "Byzantine monks"; "Byzantine rites"

of or relating to or characteristic of the Byzantine Empire or the ancient city of Byzantium

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"

(noun) a native or inhabitant of Byzantium or of the Byzantine Empire