torturing

tor·ture  (tôrchr)

n.

1.

a. Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion.

b. 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.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin tortra, from Latin tortus, past participle of torqure, to twist; see terk^w- in Indo-European roots.]

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tortur·er n.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	torturing - 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" torture persecution - the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion) falanga, bastinado - a form of torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with whips or cudgels boot - a form of foot torture in which the feet are encased in iron and slowly crushed burning - a form of torture in which cigarettes or cigars or other hot implements are used to burn the victim's skin excruciation, crucifixion - the infliction of extremely painful punishment or suffering genital torture - blunt or penetrating trauma or rape (vaginal or anal) judicial torture - torture that is sanctioned by the state and executed by duly accredited officials; "the English renounced judicial torture in 1640" kia quen - a form of foot torture used by the Chinese in which the victim's foot was placed between three pieces of bamboo and systematically squeezed kittee - a form of torture used by American Indians in which sensitive parts of the body were squeezed between two boards until the victim could bear no more nail pulling, nail removal - a form of torture in which the fingernails or toenails are removed piquet, picket - a form of military punishment used by the British in the late 17th century in which a soldier was forced to stand on one foot on a pointed stake prolonged interrogation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by questioning the victim for hours rack - a form of torture in which pain is inflicted by stretching the body sensory deprivation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of all sensory input sleep deprivation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of sleep strapado, strappado - a form of torture in which the hands are tied behind a person's back and they are lifted off the ground by a rope tied to their wrists, then allowed to drop until their fall is checked with a jerk by the rope electric shock - the use of electricity to administer punishment or torture; "they used cattle prods to administer electric shocks" dismemberment, taking apart - the removal of limbs; being cut to pieces
Adj.	1.	torturing - extremely painful                     agonising, agonizing, excruciating, harrowing, torturesome, torturous painful - causing physical or psychological pain; "worked with painful slowness"