torture

(noun, verb)

noun

1. extreme mental distress

Similar word(s): anguish, torment

Definition categories: feeling, distress, hurt, suffering

2. unbearable physical pain

Similar word(s): torment

Definition categories: state, hurting, pain

3. intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain

- the torments of the damned

Similar word(s): agony, torment

Definition categories: feeling, hurt, suffering

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

Similar word(s): distortion, overrefinement, straining, twisting

Definition categories: act, falsification, misrepresentation

5. 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

Similar word(s): torturing

Definition categories: act, persecution

Sentences with torture as a noun:

- Using large dogs to attack bound, hand-cuffed prisoners is clearly torture.

- In every war there are acts of torture that cause the world to shudder.

- People confess to anything under torture.

- Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture!

verb

1. torment emotionally or mentally

Similar word(s): excruciate, rack, torment

Definition categories: emotion, anguish, hurt, pain

2. subject to torture

- The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible

Similar word(s): excruciate, torment

Definition categories: body, injure, wound

Sentences with torture as a verb:

- People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.