From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
torture \tor"ture\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {tortured}
(t[^o]r"t[-u]rd; 135); p. pr. & vb. n. {tTorturing.}] [Cf. F.
Torturer. ]
1. To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
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2. To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture
an accused person. --Shak.
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3. To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort. --Jar.
Taylor.
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4. To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.]
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The bow tortureth the string. --Bacon.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Torture \Tor"ture\ (t[^o]r"t[-u]r; 135), n. [F., fr. L. tortura,
fr. torquere, tortum, to twist, rack, torture; probably akin
to Gr. tre`pein to turn, G. drechseln to turn on a lathe, and
perhaps to E. queer. Cf. {Contort}, {Distort}, {Extort},
{Retort}, {Tart}, n., {Torch}, {Torment}, {Tortion}, {Tort},
{Trope.}]
1. Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony;
torment; as, torture of mind. --Shak.
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Ghastly spasm or racking torture. --Milton.
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2. Especially, severe pain inflicted judicially, either as
punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a
confession from an accused person, as by water or fire, by
the boot or thumbkin, or by the rack or wheel.
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3. The act or process of torturing.
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Torture, which had always been deciared illegal, and
which had recently been declared illegal even by the
servile judges of that age, was inflicted for the
last time in England in the month of May, 1640.
--Macaulay.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
torture
n 1: extreme mental distress [syn: {anguish}, {torment},
{torture}]
2: unbearable physical pain [syn: {torture}, {torment}]
3: intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain;
"an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned" [syn:
{agony}, {torment}, {torture}]
4: the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something
it was not intended to mean [syn: {distortion},
{overrefinement}, {straining}, {torture}, {twisting}]
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" [syn: {torture},
{torturing}]
v 1: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: {torment}, {torture},
{excruciate}, {rack}]
2: subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell,
according to the Bible" [syn: {torture}, {excruciate},
{torment}]
From French-English FreeDict Dictionary ver. 0.3.4 [fd-fra-eng]:
torture /toʀtyʀ/
torture; torment
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