Adjacent Words

Torture definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TORT'URE, n. [L. tortus, torqueo, to twist.]
1. Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment.
Ghastly spasm or racking torture.
2. Severe pain inflicted judicially, either as a punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a confession from an accused person. Torture may be and is inflicted in a variety of ways, as by water or fire, or by the boot or thumbkin. But the most usual mode is by the rack or wheel.
TORT'URE, v.t. To pain to extremity; to torment.
1. To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
2. To vex; to harass.
3. To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: extreme mental distress [syn: anguish, torment, torture]
2: unbearable physical pain [syn: torture, torment]
3: intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain; "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned" [syn: agony, torment, torture]
4: the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean [syn: distortion, overrefinement, straining, torture, twisting]
5: the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons in an attempt to force another person to yield information or to make a confession or for any other reason; "it required unnatural torturing to extract a confession" [syn: torture, torturing] v
1: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: torment, torture, excruciate, rack]
2: subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible" [syn: torture, excruciate, torment]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin tortura, from Latin tortus, past participle of torqu?re to twist; probably akin to Old High German dr?hsil turner, Greek atraktos spindle Date: 1540 1. a. anguish of body or mind ; agony b. something that causes agony or pain 2. the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure 3. distortion or overrefinement of a meaning or an argument ; straining II. transitive verb (tortured; torturing) Date: 1588 1. to cause intense suffering to ; torment 2. to punish or coerce by inflicting excruciating pain 3. to twist or wrench out of shape ; distort, warp Synonyms: see afflict • torturer noun

U.S. Military Dictionary

As defined by Title 18, US Code, Section 2340, it is any act committed by a person acting under color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control. "Severe mental pain or suffering" means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from: (a) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (b) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind- altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; (c) the threat of imminent death; or (d) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality. (JP 2-01.2)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 the infliction of severe bodily pain esp. as a punishment or a means of persuasion. 2 severe physical or mental suffering (the torture of defeat). --v.tr. 1 subject to torture (tortured by guilt). 2 force out of a natural position or state; deform; pervert. Derivatives: torturable adj. torturer n. torturous adj. torturously adv. Etymology: F f. LL tortura twisting (as TORT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Torture Tor"ture, n. [F.,fr.L. tortura, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist, rack, torture; probably akin to Gr. tre`pein to turn, G. drechsein to turn on a lathe, and perhaps to E. queer. Cf. Contort, Distort, Extort, Retort, Tart, n., Torch, Torment, Tortion, Tort, Trope.] 1. Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind. --Shak. Ghastly spasm or racking torture. --Milton. 2. Especially, severe pain inflicted judicially, either as punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a confession from an accused person, as by water or fire, by the boot or thumbkin, or by the rack or wheel. 3. The act or process of torturing. Torture, whitch had always been deciared illegal, and which had recently been declared illegal even by the servile judges of that age, was inflicted for the last time in England in the month of May, 1640. --Macaulay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Torture Tor"ture, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tortured (?; 135); p. pr. & vb. n. Torturing.] [Cf. F. Torturer. ] 1. To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex. 2. To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person. --Shak. 3. To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort. --Jar. Taylor. 4. To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.] The bow tortureth the string. --Bacon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(tortures, torturing, tortured) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If someone is tortured, another person deliberately causes them great pain over a period of time, in order to punish them or to make them reveal information. French police are convinced that she was tortured and killed... They never again tortured a prisoner in his presence. VERB: be V-ed, V n • Torture is also a noun. ...alleged cases of torture and murder by the security forces... N-VAR 2. To torture someone means to cause them to suffer mental pain or anxiety. He would not torture her further by trying to argue with her... She tortured herself with fantasies of Bob and his new girlfriend. = torment VERB: V n, V pron-refl 3. If you say that something is torture or a torture, you mean that it causes you great mental or physical suffering. (INFORMAL) Waiting for the result was torture... N-UNCOUNT: also a N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Anguish, agony, torment, rack, pang, extreme pain, excruciating pain, acute distress. II. v. a. Torment, distress, agonize, rack, excruciate, pain extremely, put to extreme pain.

Moby Thesaurus

Procrustean bed, abuse, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, agonizingness, agony, ail, anguish, atrocious pain, bed of Procrustes, befoul, bewitch, bias, bite, blight, bloody, boot, burn, chafe, claw, clawing, color, condemn, confinement, contort, convulse, corrupt, cruciation, crucifixion, crucify, curse, cut, damage, defile, deprave, desolate, desolateness, desolation, despoil, destroy, disadvantage, dismember, dismemberment, disserve, distort, distress, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, draw and quarter, envenom, estrapade, excruciate, excruciatingness, excruciation, fester, fret, gall, galleys, garble, get into trouble, get one wrong, get wrong, give pain, gloss, gnaw, grate, grill, grind, gripe, harass, hard labor, harm, harrow, heartbreak, heartsickness, hell, hell upon earth, hex, holocaust, horror, hurt, impair, impale, impalement, imprisonment, incarceration, infect, inflame, inflict pain, injure, iron heel, irritate, jailing, jinx, keelhaul, keelhauling, kill by inches, lacerate, laceration, lancinate, lancination, macerate, maim, maltreat, mangle, martyr, martyrdom, martyrization, martyrize, menace, misapply, misapprehend, miscite, misconceive, misconstrue, misdeem, misdirect, misexplain, misexplicate, misexpound, misinterpret, misjudge, misquote, misread, misrender, misrepresent, misshape, mistake, mistranslate, mistreat, misunderstand, misuse, molest, mutilate, nightmare, nip, oppress, outrage, pain, passion, penal servitude, persecute, persecution, pervert, picket, picketing, pierce, pinch, play havoc with, play hob with, poison, pollute, prejudice, prick, prolong the agony, punish, purgatory, put to torture, rack, railriding, rankle, rasp, rip, rock pile, rub, savage, scarify, scarpines, scathe, screw, slant, smite, squeeze, stab, sting, strain, strain the sense, strappado, taint, tar and feather, tar-and-feathering, the gantlet, threaten, thumbscrew, torment, tormentingness, torturousness, try, tweak, twist, twist the words, varnish, violate, warp, wheel, wind, wound, wreak havoc on, wrench, wring, wrong