torture
Plural: tortures
Noun
- extreme mental distress
- unbearable physical pain
- intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain
- the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean
- 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
- The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which is designed to inflict such anguish.
- Severe pain or anguish, of mind or body.
- An unpleasant sensation or its infliction: embarrassment, heartache, etc.
Verb
Verb Forms: tortured, torturing, tortures
- To inflict severe physical or mental pain on someone.
- torment emotionally or mentally
- subject to torture
- To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone), usually with the aim of forcing confessions or punishing them.
Examples
- Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture!
- People confess to anything under torture.
- People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.
- The final minutes of the Scrabble game seemed to TORTURE him as he sought a winning word.
- Using large dogs to attack bound, hand-cuffed prisoners is clearly torture.
- What new tortures await me?
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortūra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Medieval Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin tortus (whence also tort), past participle of torquēre (“to twist”).
Synonyms
agony, anguish, distortion, excruciate, overrefinement, rack, straining, torment, torturing, twisting, ache, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, dere, difficulty, distress, enhanced interrogation, enhanced interrogation techniques, grief, hardship, hurt, irritate, misery, pain, pang, pine, rend, smart, throe, torture, trouble, wark, wring
Scrabble Score: 7
torture: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordtorture: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
torture: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary