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torture - 5 dictionary results
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tor⋅ture

  [tawr-cher] noun, verb, -tured, -tur⋅ing.
Use torture in a Sentence
–noun
1. the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
2. a method of inflicting such pain.
3. Often, tortures. the pain or suffering caused or undergone.
4. extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.
5. a cause of severe pain or anguish.
–verb (used with object)
6. to subject to torture.
7. to afflict with severe pain of body or mind: My back is torturing me.
8. to force or extort by torture: We'll torture the truth from his lips!
9. to twist, force, or bring into some unnatural position or form: trees tortured by storms.
10. to distort or pervert (language, meaning, etc.).
Origin:
1530–40; < LL tortūra a twisting, torment, torture. See tort, -ure

Related forms:
tor⋅tur⋅a⋅ble, adjective
tor⋅tured⋅ly, adverb
tor⋅tur⋅er, noun
tor⋅ture⋅some, adjective
tor⋅tur⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
6. See torment.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To torture
tor·ture   (tôr'chər)   
n.  
    1. Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion.
    2. An instrument or a method for inflicting such pain.
  2. Excruciating physical or mental pain; agony: the torture of waiting in suspense.
  3. Something causing severe pain or anguish.
tr.v.   tor·tured, tor·tur·ing, tor·tures
  1. To subject (a person or an animal) to torture.
  2. To bring great physical or mental pain upon (another). See Synonyms at afflict.
  3. To twist or turn abnormally; distort: torture a rule to make it fit a case.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin tortūra, from Latin tortus, past participle of torquēre, to twist; see terkw- in Indo-European roots.]
tor'tur·er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.

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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : torture
Spanish: torturar,
German: foltern,
Japanese: ごう問にかける
More Translations »

torture  (n.)
c.1495 (implied in torturous), from M.Fr. torture "infliction of great pain, great pain, agony," from L.L. torture "a twisting, writhing, torture, torment," from stem of L. torquere "to twist, turn, wind, wring, distort" (see thwart). The verb is 1588, from the noun. Tortuous "full of twists" is recorded from 1426.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Torture Memos Released
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 www.aclu.org
Did Bush Break the Law?
 Sign our petition to investigate Bush-Cheney Administration abuses!
 ga3.org/campaign/btcpetition