torture : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: torture	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for torture
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
torture n extreme mental distress [syn: anguish, torment, torture] unbearable physical pain Synonym(s): torture, torment intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain; "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned" Synonym(s): agony, torment, torture the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean Synonym(s): distortion, overrefinement, straining, torture, twisting 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" Synonym(s): torture, torturing v torment emotionally or mentally [syn: torment, torture, excruciate, rack] subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible" Synonym(s): torture, excruciate, torment
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Torture \Tor"ture\, n. [F.,fr.L. tortura, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist, rack, torture; probably akin to Gr. tre`pein to turn, G. drechsein 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. Ghastly spasm or racking torture. --Milton. 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. 3. The act or process of torturing. Torture, whitch 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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Torture \Tor"ture\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tortured} ([?]; 135); p. pr. & vb. n. {Torturing.}] [Cf. F. Torturer. ] 1. To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex. 2. To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person. --Shak. 3. To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort. --Jar. Taylor. 4. To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.] The bow tortureth the string. --Bacon.