Hypertext Webster Gateway: "torture"
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
torture
n 1: extreme mental distress [syn: {anguish}, {torment}]
2: unbearable physical pain [syn: {torment}]
3: intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical
pain; "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned"
[syn: {agony}, {torment}]
4: the act of distorting something so it seems to mean
something it was not intended to mean [syn: {distortion},
{overrefinement}, {straining}, {twisting}]
5: the act of torturing someone; "it required unnatural
torturing to extract a confession" [syn: {torturing}]
v 1: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: {torment}, {excruciate},
{rack}]
2: subject to torture [syn: {excruciate}, {torment}]
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