Torture
['tɔːtʃə] or ['tɔrtʃɚ]
Definition
(noun.) 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'.
(noun.) unbearable physical pain.
(verb.) subject to torture; 'The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible'.
Checked by Cecily--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind.
(n.) 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.
(n.) The act or process of torturing.
(v. t.) To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
(v. t.) To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
(v. t.) To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
(v. t.) To keep on the stretch, as a bow.
Typed by Clarissa
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Anguish, agony, torment, rack, pang, extreme pain, excruciating pain, acute distress.
v. a. Torment, distress, agonize, rack, excruciate, pain extremely, put to extreme pain.
Editor: Lucia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Agony, anguish, racking, torment
ANT:Ecstasy, rapture, bliss
Edited by Antony
Definition
n. a putting to the rack or severe pain to extort a confession or as a punishment: extreme pain: anguish of body or mind.—v.t. to put to torture or to the rack: to put to extreme pain: to annoy: to vex.—n. Tor′turer.—adv. Tor′turingly in a torturing manner: so as to torment or punish.—adj. Tor′turous causing torture.
Editor: Stephen
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of being tortured, denotes that you will undergo disappointment and grief through the machination of false friends. If you are torturing others, you will fail to carry out well-laid plans for increasing your fortune. If you are trying to alleviate the torture of others, you will succeed after a struggle in business and love.
Checked by Cathy
Examples
- He _could not_ walk on, till daylight came again; and here he stretched himself close to the wall--to undergo new torture. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Then came your dear mother to torture me farther, with all her kindness and confidence. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- But tonight every fibre in her body shrank from Lily's nearness: it was torture to listen to her breathing, and feel the sheet stir with it. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- No; but it can give varieties of pain, and prevent us from breaking our hearts with a single tyrant master-torture. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Waldman inflicted torture when he praised, with kindness and warmth, the astonishing progress I had made in the sciences. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Never by word or deed have you attempted to take advantage of my defenceless condition to insult or torture me. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master of an impulse, which I detested, yet could not disobey. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Don't you feel it, don't you feel you CAN'T be tortured into any more knowledge? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- I was tortured and tried to get away, and was captured and tortured again. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Presently Philotas was accused of conspiracy, and, upon very insufficient evidence, tortured and executed. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- You do not mean that they had tortured him? Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- To avoid being tortured? Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- He had all his life been tortured by a furious and destructive demon, which possessed him sometimes like an insanity. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- You know the weak side of her character, and may imagine the sentiments and expressions which were torturing me. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- You have the knack of torturing those who love you, beyond the possibility of endurance! Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- It was torturing to me to hear them talk of occurrences in which I had had no share. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- You are torturing yourself by yourself; you have destroyed the sense of pleasure, and can therefore see nothing good on God's earth. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- He could dispel the seriousness of Perdita, and take the sting from the torturing activity of my nature. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- He is a slow-torturing kind of man. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- There were tortures and executions, as well as a great crowding of the gaols with Christian presbyters and bishops. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The sound by nature undergo these tortures, and are racked, shaken, shattered; their beauty and bloom perish, but life remains untouched. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- To whom could the poor little martyr tell these daily struggles and tortures? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- You have no idea of the tortures I should suffer, Mr. Hartright, if Louis dropped that portfolio. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- It may perish with the dawn of eternity, but it tortures through time into its deepest night. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Take my life if thou wilt, and say, the Jew, amidst his tortures, knew how to disappoint the Christian. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- It was all over wives and angels, and eternal constancy, and eternal despair; with miseries and tortures without end. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
Typist: Preston