TORTURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does torture mean? 

• TORTURE (noun)
  The noun TORTURE has 5 senses:

1. extreme mental distress

2. unbearable physical pain

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

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

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

  Familiarity information: TORTURE used as a noun is common.

• TORTURE (verb)
  The verb TORTURE has 2 senses:

1. torment emotionally or mentally

2. subject to torture

  Familiarity information: TORTURE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TORTURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extreme mental distress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

anguish; torment; torture

Hypernyms ("torture" is a kind of...):

distress; hurt; suffering (psychological suffering)

Derivation:

torture (torment emotionally or mentally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unbearable physical pain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

torment; torture

Hypernyms ("torture" is a kind of...):

hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

Derivation:

torture (subject to torture)

torturous (extremely painful)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

agony; torment; torture

Context example:

the torments of the damned

Hypernyms ("torture" is a kind of...):

hurt; suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)

Derivation:

torture (torment emotionally or mentally)

torturous (extremely painful)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

distortion; overrefinement; straining; torture; twisting

Hypernyms ("torture" is a kind of...):

falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)

Sense 5

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

torture; torturing

Context example:

it required unnatural torturing to extract a confession

Hypernyms ("torture" is a kind of...):

persecution (the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "torture"):

boot (a form of foot torture in which the feet are encased in iron and slowly crushed)

dismemberment; taking apart (the removal of limbs; being cut to pieces)

electric shock (the use of electricity to administer punishment or torture)

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)

sleep deprivation (a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of sleep)

sensory deprivation (a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of all sensory input)

rack (a form of torture in which pain is inflicted by stretching the body)

prolonged interrogation (a form of psychological torture inflicted by questioning the victim for hours)

picket; piquet (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)

nail pulling; nail removal (a form of torture in which the fingernails or toenails are removed)

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)

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)

judicial torture (torture that is sanctioned by the state and executed by duly accredited officials)

genital torture (blunt or penetrating trauma or rape (vaginal or anal))

crucifixion; excruciation (the infliction of extremely painful punishment or suffering)

burning (a form of torture in which cigarettes or cigars or other hot implements are used to burn the victim's skin)

bastinado; falanga (a form of torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with whips or cudgels)

Derivation:

torture (subject to torture)

• TORTURE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they torture    ... he / she / it tortures   
Past simple: tortured   
Past participle: tortured   
-ing form: torturing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Torment emotionally or mentally

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

excruciate; rack; torment; torture

Hypernyms (to "torture" is one way to...):

anguish; hurt; pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will torture him

Derivation:

torture (intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain)

torture (extreme mental distress)

torturer (someone who inflicts severe physical pain (usually for punishment or coercion))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Subject to torture

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

excruciate; torment; torture

Context example:

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

Hypernyms (to "torture" is one way to...):

injure; wound (cause injuries or bodily harm to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "torture"):

rack (torture on the rack)

martyr; martyrise; martyrize (torture and torment like a martyr)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to torture the prisoners

Derivation:

torture (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)

torture (unbearable physical pain)

torturer (someone who inflicts severe physical pain (usually for punishment or coercion))

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)

 Context examples 

I am glad we made our resolution in time, as with such a feeling as this, our growing knowledge would be torture to her.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

How God must have hated them that they should be tortured so!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You know not, you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me;—though it was some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

My boots might be placed in any collection of instruments of torture.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the many whose lives he had ruined, whose nearest and dearest had suffered torture and death at his hands, would not let the matter rest.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was tortured and tried to get away, and was captured and tortured again.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Neptune's satellite system has a violent and tortured history.

(Tiny Neptune Moon Spotted by Hubble May Have Broken from Larger Moon, NASA)

I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was to me like the torture of single drops of water continually falling on the head.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I cannot, I cannot, cried Marianne; leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! but do not torture me so.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)