n. | 1. | Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; |
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. | |
v. t. | 1. | To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex. |
2. | To punish with torture; to put to the rack; | |
3. | To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort. | |
4. | To keep on the stretch, as a bow. |
Noun | 1. | ![]() |
2. | torture - unbearable physical pain Synonyms: torment | |
3. | ![]() | |
4. | torture - the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean | |
5. | torture - the act of torturing someone; "it required unnatural torturing to extract a confession" Synonyms: torturing | |
Verb | 1. | torture - torment emotionally or mentally |
2. | torture - subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible" Synonyms: excruciate, torment |
TORTURE, punishments. A punishment inflicted in some countries on supposed
criminals to induce them to confess their crimes, and to reveal their
associates.
2. This absurd and tyrannical practice never was in use in the United
States; for no man is bound to accuse himself. An attempt to torture a
person accused of crime, in order to extort a confession, is an indictable
offence. 2 Tyler, 380. Vide Question.