torture

Meaning

1. 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.
2. Severe pain or anguish, of mind or body.
3. An unpleasant sensation or its infliction: embarrassment, heartache, etc.
4. (colloquial) (often as "absolute torture") Stage fright; severe embarrassment.

torment

rack

cause anguish

prey on one’s mind

sheer hell

be distressed

make suffer

prey on

put about

make sad

treat cruelly

cause to suffer

grief

martyrise

cause suffering

extreme suffering

live with suffering

be cruel to

gnaw at

ill treat

Frequency

Hyphenated as

tor‧ture

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/

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”).

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