Torture

Definition: Torture

Torture

Noun

1. Extreme mental distress.

2. Unbearable physical pain.

3. Intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain; "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned".

4. The act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean.

5. The act of torturing someone; "it required unnatural torturing to extract a confession".

Verb

1. Torment emotionally or mentally.

2. Subject to torture.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "torture" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Dream Interpretation

Health

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Torture

Malevolence

Hardness of heart, heart of stone, obduracy; cruelty; cruelness; Adjective: brutality, savagery; ferity, ferocity; barbarity, inhumanity, immanity, truculence, ruffianism; evil eye, cloven foot; torture, vivisection.

Pain

Wring, harrow, torment, torture; bullyrag; put to the rack, put to the question; break on the wheel, rack, scarify; cruciate, crucify; convulse, agonize; barb the dart; plant a dagger in the breast, plant a thorn in one's side.

Pang, anguish, agony; torture, torment; purgatory; (hell).

Physical Pain

Give pain, inflict pain; lacerate; pain, hurt, chafe, sting, bite, gnaw, gripe; pinch, tweak; grate, gall, fret, prick, pierce, wring, convulse; torment, torture; rack, agonize; crucify; cruciate, excruciate; break on the wheel, put to the rack; flog. (punish); grate on the ear. (harsh sound).

Anguish, agony; torment, torture; rack; cruciation, crucifixion; martyrdom, toad under a harrow, vivisection.

Punishment

Torture; put on, put to the rack; picket.

Lash, scaffold; (instrument of punishment); imprisonment; (restraint); transportation, banishment, expulsion, exile, involuntary exile, ostracism; penal servitude, hard labor; galleys; beating;Verb: flagellation, fustigation, gantlet, strappado, estrapade, bastinado, argumentum baculinum, stick law, rap on the knuckles, box on the ear; blow; (impulse); stripe, cuff, kick, buffet, pummel; slap, slap in the face; wipe, douse; coup de grace; torture, rack; picket, picketing; dragonnade.

Reasoning,

Open a discussion, open a case; try conclusions; join issue, be at issue; moot; come to the point; stir a question, agitate a question, ventilate a question, torture a question; take up a side, take up a case.

Scourge

Triangle, wooden horse, iron maiden, thumbscrew, boot, rack, wheel, iron heel; chinese water torture.

Crosswords: Torture

Albanian (scavenger's daughter), French (grilling, torment, torture, tortures).

Do you see it as part of your job to torture me (The American President; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin.)

Your shame will be your torture, and your torture will be your life (Seven Years in Tibet; writing credit: Becky Johnston)

I am to torture you if you do not talk (Tomorrow Never Dies; writing credit: Bruce Feirstein)

Don't torture yourself, Gomez (Addams Family; writing credit: Caroline Thompson, Larry Wilson)

But our courts continue to rely on medieval devices of torture. (Sleepy Hollow; writing credit: Kevin Yagher)

Don't you know that when you touch me baby that it's torture (Sexual (Li Da Di); performing artist: Amber)

'cause if it wasn't for all of your torture (Fighter; performing artist: CHRISTINA AGUILERA)

You can torture me (Achy Breaky Song; performing artist: Weird Al Yankovic)

Beat me with the truth, don't torture me with lies. (references; author: unknown)

The Day the Torture Stopped (1974)

Brazil: A Report on Torture (1971)

Kiss Me Torture Me (1970)

Torture Dungeon (1970)

The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne (1965)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Die for Me: The Terrifying True Story of the Charles Ng & Leonard Lake Torture Muders (reference)

• Torture Worldwide: An Affront to Human Dignity (reference)

• Torture in Brazil: A Report by the Archdiocese of Sao Paulo (reference)

• The torture of the mind : Macbeth, tragedy and chiasmus (reference)

• Welcome to Hell: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya (reference)

  (more book examples)

Periodicals

• Canadian Centre For Victims Of Torture Membership (reference)

  (more periodical examples)

Theater & Movies

• The Lucio Fulci Collection Volume 3 (City of the Living Dead/Don't Torture a Duckling) (reference)

• Tomb Of Torture (reference)

• Torture Zone (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Torture Garden Vs Fatten Angel [IMPORT] (reference)

• Effortless Regurgitation...The Torture Sessions [EXPLICIT LYRICS] (reference)

• The Torture Technique (reference)

• Torture Zone: Sounds to Terrorize (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects. Illustrated. Credit: Library of Congress.

Mausoleum to Resistance and Martyrdom. Instruments of torture in the interrogation room / Fot. A. Kaczkowski. Credit: Library of Congress.

Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana--Also exhibiting instruments of torture used to punish slaves. Credit: Library of Congress.

Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects. Illustrated / By James Akin, No. 18 Prune Street, Philadelphia. Credit: Library of Congress.

How to torture your husband. "Roy, will you condescend to deal?". Credit: Library of Congress.

Argentina '78 : sede mundial de la tortura y la violacion de los derechos humanos : su repudio puede salvar una vida = world's site of torture and violation of human rights : to condemn it may save a life. Credit: Library of Congress.

Stop the torture of South African political detainees!. Credit: Library of Congress.

Poster showing six instruments of torture and a bible, drawn above the word for each day of the week, and a baby sitting in a playpen. Credit: Library of Congress.

I live not in myself, but I become a portion of that around me; and to me high mountains are a feeling, and the hum of human cities torture --. Credit: Library of Congress.

The special criminal court, Dublin : sees no torture, hears no evidence, speaks no truth : a fair trial for the Murrays. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Thus, during those nineteen years of torture and slavery, did this soul rise and fall at the same time

As the waters of baptism cleanse the soul with the body so do the fires of punishment torture the spirit with the flesh

The Jesuits were quite balked by those indians who, being burned at the stake, suggested new modes of torture to their tormentors

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Business

NGO reports stated that the body showed signs of torture. (references)

The official media reports on torture cases, but many are believed to go unreported. (references)

Of the 31 states and the Federal District, only Hidalgo lacks a law prohibiting torture. (references)

Children

India

In March 1999, NHRC member Justice V.S. Malimath said that cases of abuse and torture of children confined to juvenile homes had been reported. (references)

Civil Liberties

Uzbekistan

An NGO reported that another brother, Rashid Bekzhon, lost vision in one eye as a result of torture. (references)

Korea

Reports of executions, torture, and imprisonment of religious persons in the country continue to emerge. (references)

Economic History

Egypt

Liberalization also included the reinstitution of due process and the legal banning of torture. (references)

Cambodia

Torture centers were established, and detailed records were kept of the thousands murdered there. (references)

China

More than 200 practitioners reportedly have died in prison as a result of mistreatment and torture. (references)

Human Rights

Peru

The torture led to Navarro's death. (references)

Peru

His face and body showed evidence of torture. (references)

Mexico

The military also has been accused of using torture. (references)

Indigenous People

India

Indigenous peoples suffer discrimination and harassment, have been deprived wrongly of their land, and have been subject to torture and to arbitrary arrest. (references)

Minorities

Bangladesh

Other actions included the rape, torture, murder, and looting of Hindus, forcing them to flee their villages. (references)

Solomon Islands

Civilians have been the victims of abuses by both sides; such abuses reportedly included abductions, torture, rape, forced resettlement, looting, and the burning of homes. (references)

Political Economy

Sri Lanka

Torture remained a problem and prison conditions remained poor. (references)

Sudan

Abductees are subjected to torture and rape, and at times, are killed. (references)

Senegal

Rebel MFDC forces reportedly were responsible for killings, torture, and rape. (references)

Worker Rights

China

Authorities use electric shocks, suspension in painful positions, and other forms of torture or abuse. (references)

Bulgaria

The women typically are taken to a large town, isolated, beaten, and subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. (references)

India

In April in West Bengal remand home for destitute women, two girls attempted suicide following sexual torture by another inmate. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "torture": be put to the torture ♦ chinese water torture ♦ instrument of torture ♦ instruments of torture ♦ put to the torture ♦ refinement of torture ♦ torture by fire ♦ torture chamber ♦ torture oneself ♦ torture to death ♦ torture victims ♦ under torture. Additional references.

Beginning with "torture": torture-chamber, torture-chambers, torture-house, torture-induced.

Ending with "torture": self-torture, water-torture.

Albanian

torturoj (crucify, excruciate, plague, rack, rankle, wrack), torturë (excruciation, heat, rack, torment), mundoj (agonize, beat, crucify, drive, harass, Harrow, obsess, rack, rankle, sweat, tantalize, torment, trouble, weigh down, wrack), mundim (cross, effort, excruciation, hardship, intension, martyrdom, pain, rack, sweat, torment, trouble), agoni (agony, death throes, death-struggle). (various references)

Arabic 

‏نكل (ill treat), ‏حرف (brim, brink, character, contort, corrupt, deviate, distort, diverge, edge, falsify, garble, letter, list, margin, misrepresent, particle, slant, tamper, twist, wrest), ‏تمثيل (creation, mayhem, performance, personification, picture, play, representation, sculpture, sham), ‏تحريف (distortion, falsification, garble, misrepresentation, twist), ‏تعذيب (grilling, third degree, torment, work), ‏تعذب (agonize, be tormented, curse, freshen up, tear along, torment), ‏تألم (suffer), ‏تشويه (defacement, deformation, deformity, disfiguration, disfigurement, distortion, falsification, malformation, misrepresentation, perversion, warp), ‏عذاب (agony, anguish, misery, ordeal, scourge, torment), ‏عذب (agonize, agreeable, bedevil, benign, charming, chasten, crucify, devil, dulcet, freshen, grilled, harrow, harry, hearty, leisurely, liquid, murder, palmy, persecute, pillory, plague, quiet, rack, rack one's brains, scourge, silken, silky, sleek, smite, smooth, smooth spoken, soft, suave, sweet, sympathetic, tantalize, tease, tender, torment, wrench, wring), ‏الم معنوي, ‏شوه (assassinate, blemish, color, colour, deface, defile, deform, denigrate, distort, falsify, garble, harm, maim, mangle, mar, misrepresent, mutilate, pervert, queer, skew, slant, slur, spoil, tinker, torment, twist, warp, wrench). (various references)

Bulgarian 

мъчение (anguish, ordeal), мъча (agonize, bedevil, excruciate, gnaw, martyrize, prick, rankle, torment, victimize, wring), мъка (ado, affliction, agony, desolation, excruciation, grief, heartache, laceration, misery, moil, pain, suffering, toil, torment), изтезавам (rack, torment, wring), изтезание (torment), изопачавам (become distorted, bend, color, colour, contort, corrupt, deform, distort, falsify, mangle, mutilate, pervert, travesty, turn about, twist), измъчвам (afflict, agonize, ail, anguish, crucify, excruciate, fester, harass, lacerate, martyr, martyrize, play up, prey, push, rack, rankle, ride, scourge, smite, try, victimize, weigh on). (various references)

Chinese 

酷刑, 熬煎 (suffering). (various references)

Czech

trápit (afflict, agonize, ail, bait, beset, bother, discommode, disgruntle, grieve, nag, pain, pester, plague, pother, rack, tantalize, torment, trouble, vex, worry), trápení (care, harassment, misery, plague, suffering, torment, trouble, vexation, worry), souzení, muka (agony, anguish, calvary, suffering), muèit (excruciate, martyr, tantalize, torment), muèení (excruciation, torment). (various references)

Dutch

martelen (abuse, agonize, torment), folteren (agonize). (various references)

Esperanto

torturo, torturi, torturado. (various references)

Farsi 

زجردادن (Torment), زجر (Torment), عذاب دادن (Agonize, Grill, Lacerate, Lug, Put, Rack, Rankle, Torment), عذاب (Torment, Tribulation), شکنجه (Rack, Torment). (various references)

Finnish

kiduttaa (abuse, agonize, torment). (various references)

French

torture (torment, tortures), supplice (torment). (various references)

Frisian

martelje (agonize), folterje (agonize). (various references)

German

Qual (ache, agony, anguish, distress, dolor, excruciation, ordeal, pain, pang, pinch, torment, vexation), Folter. (various references)

Greek 

βασανίζω (afflict, agonize, bait, bedevil, excruciate, flay, harass, obsess, pester, plague, prey on, rack, scourge, torment, worry). (various references)

Hebrew 

לבט (difficulty, exertion, pain, trouble), לסגוף (afflict, mortify), לסגף (afflict, mortify), ענוי (suffering), כאב (ache, grief, hurt, malady, pain, soreness, suffering, torment, wrench), סגוף (afflicted, affliction, mortification, suffering). (various references)

Hungarian

kínzás (laceration, maltreatment, mortifying, torment), kínvallatás (racking), kínszenvedés (Gethsemane), kínoz (afflict, agonize, bedevil, excruciate, rack, tease, to afflict, to agonize, to bully, to crucify, to discommode, to hag, to harry, to lacerate, to obsess, to pain, to rack, to torment, to torture, torment, wring). (various references)

Indonesian

sikatan (abuse, sweep, torment), menyiksa (castigate, excruciate, persecute), menganiaya (agonize, maltreat, molest). (various references)

Italian

torturare (agonize, excruciate, rack, worry), tortura (agony, torment). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

拷問 (the rack, third degree). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

せめく, かしゃく (borrowing, characters substituted for others of the same sound, extenuation, maltreatment, pangs, pardon), ごうもん (the rack, third degree), わいきょく (distortion, falsification, perversion). (various references)

Korean 

고문 (consultant, torturing). (various references)

Malay

penganiayaan, aniaya ... menganiaya (agonize). (various references)

Manx

torchaghey (excruciate, tantalization, tantalize; tormenting, torment, torturing), torchagh (anguish, excruciating, tantalizing; torment, tormenting, torturing). (various references)

Papiamen

tortura. (various references)

Pig Latin

orturetay.(various references)

Portuguese

tortura (hades, hell, rack, torment). (various references)

Romanian

torturã (excruciation, inquisition, question, torment), tortura (bedevil, excruciate, gnaw, grill, Harrow, lacerate, rack, tantalize, wring), trudi (drudge, fag, grind, labor, labour, moil, sweat, toil, weary), munci (do, endeavor, endeavour, labor, labour, rack, suffer, till, toil, torment, work), apãsa (bear, bear on, depress, emphasize, jam, oppress, press, push, push down, squeeze, stress, torment), canon (Canon, catch, dogma, tenet, torment), canoni (tire, toil, torment, weary), caznã (agony, efforts, labor, labour, moil, question, rack, torment), chin (agony, anguish, gnawing, hurt, laceration, moil, ordeal, pain, pang, rack, torment, trouble, worriment), chinui (agonize, bait, bore, drudge, fester, grill, harass, Harrow, Harry, lacerate, martyr, martyrize, mortify, overdrive, persecute, pinch, plague, prey, prick, rack, slave, tantalize, torment, trouble, try, worry, wring), denatura (angle, denaturalize, denature, distort, falsify, give false colour to, mangle, misrepresent, palter with, pervert, sophisticate, transfigure, warp, wrest), durere (ache, bale, burden, complaint, dolour, grief, hurt, mourning, pain, pinch, Ruth, sorrow, suffering, trouble, woe), fierbe (boil, bubble over, cook, effervesce, ferment, fizz, heat, poach, pot, rage, resound, roar, seethe, simmer, torment), frãmânta (agitate, beat, brake, bustle, churn, debate, fret, fuss, knead, puddle, pug, ride, stamp, stir, temper, torment, worry), agonie (agony, anguish, mortal agony, throes, torment), ispiti (allure, appeal, attract, bait, carry away, decoy, entice, examine, inveigle, invite, lure, tax, tempt, try), omorî (annihilate, assassinate, bring down, bump, butcher, croak, destroy, dispatch, do for, do in, execute, exhaust, finish, kill, knock off, make an end of, make away with, murder, put smb. on the spot, put to death, send to glory, shift, slaughter, slay, spoil, torment), patimã (addiction, Ardor, ardour, intemperance, passion), perpeli (be upset, Fry, worry), povarã (burden, encumbrance, load, plummet, weight), schingiui, schingiuire (torturing), seca (drain, dry, empty, exhaust, peter out, run dry, torment), supliciu (agony, torment), frãmântare (agitation, anxiety, discomposure, fermentation, fluster, flutter, fret, fretfulness, kneading, trepidation, unrest, worry). (various references)

Russian 

муки (crucifixion), пытка (excruciation), пытать пытка, пытать, истязание. (various references)

Scottish

lùir, ceus (crucify, ham, the coarse part of the wool on sheep's legs). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

tortura, mučiti (agonize, ail, beleaguer, excruciate, gnaw, harass, mortify, nettle, persecute, plague, rack, rankle, tantalize, torment), mučenje (agony, anguish, excruciation, mortification, pangs, racking). (various references)

Spanish

tortura (excruciation), tormento (anguish, dolor, excruciation, torment). (various references)

Swedish

tortyr (torment), tortera (agonize, rack, torment), pina (ache, agonize, agony, crucify, excruciate, excruciation, pain, pinch, tantalise, tantalize, torment), plåga (afflict, aggrieve, agonize, agony, ail, bedevil, bother, crucify, curse, distress, excruciate, excruciation, fret, gall, harass, Harrow, Harry, infliction, jar, pain, pang, persecute, pester, pinch, plague, rack, ride, scourge, tear, terror, torment, worry, wring). (various references)

Turkish

işkence etmek (agonize, crucify, excruciate, grill, martyr, persecute, put to the torture, rack, torment), işkence (corporal punishment, cruelty, gaff, grueling, gruelling, persecution, torment), eziyet etmek (afflict, agonize, dragoon, excruciate, grind down, grind out, Harry, lead smb. a dance, maltreat, oppress, pain, persecute, rack, torment, tyrannize, tyrannize over, wrong), eziyet (gnawing, grind, grinding work, infliction, maltreatment, oppression, pain, persecution, punishment, torment, vexation), azap (ache, gaff, pain, sting, torment), çektirmek (cause to draw, grind, grind down, grind out, serve, subject, visit), çarpıtmak (angle, color, colour, contort, distort, garble, make awry, make crooked, pervert, skew, slant, strain, twist, warp, wrench, wrest, wring), ızdırap (affliction, agony, anguish, distress, hurt, misery, pain, sting, suffering). (various references)

Turkmen 

helдkleme, gьzap, gцrgьlik, gцrgi (suffering), зekelemek (pester, torment), azap (torment). (various references)

Ukrainian

катувати (butcher, martyrize, torment), катування (torment), мучити (agonize, bedevil, bully, chivvy, crucify, devour, drag, excruciate, martyrize, pain, pinch, plague, torment, tribulate, trouble, victimize, whip), мука (agony, anguish, excruciation, martyrdom, moil), перекручувати (bedevil, contort, deform, disguise, distort, garble, kink, misconstrue, mutilate, pervert, sophisticate, travesty, warp, wrest, wring), джерело страждань (despair). (various references)

Vietnamese 

sự tra tấn (rack), nỗi thống khổ (anguish, bale, cross, torment). (various references)

Welsh

poenydio (fret, torment, vex), dirdynnu (rack), dirboen (extreme pain), arteithio (rack), artaith (agony, pang, torment). (various references)

cruciabit, cruciabitur, cruciabuntur, cruciamenta, cruciamentis, cruciamento, cruciamentum, cruciandos, cruciaretur, cruciasti, cruciatu, cruciatur, cruciatus, cruciaverunt, crucior, excrucio, supplicia, suppliciis, supplicium, tormen, tormen, tormina, tormenta, tormento, torquens, torquent, torquentes, torqueo, torquere, torqueri, torques, torserat, torta, tortam, tortamque, tortas, tortiones, tortis, torto, tortura, torturi. (various references)

torture. (various references)

torture. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "torture": tortured, torturer, torturers, tortures. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Torture" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: forture, tartare, Tervuren, torgue, tortie, tortor, tortora, tortue, tortune, tortur, tor-ture, Torturi, totara, totora, toture, Tourteron, tourture. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: retort, rotter, router, tourer, touter, turret.

-2 letters: otter, outer, outre, retro, rotte, route, torte, toter, trout, truer, tutor, utter.

-3 letters: euro, rote, roue, rout, ruer, tore, torr, tort, tote, tour, tout, tret, trot, true.

-4 letters: err, ore, ort, our, out, ret, roe, rot, rue, rut, tet, toe, tor, tot, tut.

-5 letters: er, et, oe, or.

+1 letter: frotteur, tortured, torturer, tortures, troutier.

+2 letters: frotteurs, torturers.

+3 letters: butterwort, corruptest, elutriator, stertorous.

+4 letters: adulterator, butterworts, carburettor, contracture, counterpart, elutriators, furthermost, interruptor, perpetuator, portraiture, protuberant, reconstruct, retribution, retributory, sternutator, tetramerous, triquetrous, vituperator.

+5 letters: adulterators, carburettors, contractures, correctitude, counterparts, countertenor, countertrade, countertrend, dumortierite, flutterboard, horticulture, intercountry, interlocutor, interruption, interruptors, interwrought, merrythought, overmaturity, oversaturate, perpetuators, perturbation, photocurrent, portraitures, postfracture, reconstructs, renaturation, resuscitator, retributions, sternutators, stertorously, superpatriot, tellurometer, throughither, throughother, thunderstorm, vituperators, vituperatory.