torture
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.
Noun 3 meanings
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.
“People confess to anything under torture.”
Severe pain or anguish, of mind or body.
An unpleasant sensation or its infliction: embarrassment, heartache, etc.
“Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture!”
Verb 1 meaning
To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone), usually with the aim of forcing confessions or punishing them.
“People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.”
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”).
Similar and opposite words
TORTURE at a glance
TORTURE has 7 letters and scores 7 points in Scrabble (T 1 + O 1 + R 1 + T 1 + U 1 + R 1 + E 1) and 8 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #5,543 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with torture
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