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Torture   /tˈɔrtʃər/   Listen
noun
Torture  n.  
1.
Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind. "Ghastly spasm or racking torture."
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, which 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."


verb
torture  v. t.  (past & past part. tortured; pres. part. torturing)  
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.
3.
To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
4.
To keep on the stretch, as a bow. (Obs.) "The bow tortureth the string."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Torture" Quotes from Famous Books



... paint his agony of terror, the torture of mind which he endured, as he sat in the post-chaise, watching every landmark of the journey, counting every minute of the tedious hours, and continually putting his head out of the front window, and urging the postillions ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... felt at her ease. But the doctors she could not tolerate, and she suffered torture when they came to argue with her. Although these theologians showed her great consideration, their eternal questions wearied her; their slowness and heaviness exasperated her. She bore them a grudge for not believing ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France
... board the blockade-runner, or my natural disposition to good condition, made me taste sweet. Several times during that fearful day I was tempted to rush out from my hiding-place, and defying patrols, gun-boat's crew, and all authorities, make my escape from that place of torture. ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha
... and went to the window of the box. I felt certain that if I sat still any longer I should be in a sound sleep. This would never do. Already it was becoming a matter of torture to keep my eyes open. I began to pace up and down; I opened the door of the box and went out on the ...
— A Master of Mysteries • L. T. Meade
... endless self-torture he reached a certain degree of composure, but life had never any real pleasures to offer him. He never dared to accept any kind of distinction; he never dared to feel himself entitled to a kind word or even well-earned praise: in a word, he ...
— Plays by August Strindberg, Second series • August Strindberg


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