GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Found 2 definitions

1.       
   Torture , n. [F., fr. L. tortura, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist, rack, torture; probably akin to Gr. τρέπειν 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.]
   Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   Ghastly spasm or racking torture.
   Milton.
   
   1913 Webster
   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.
   1913 Webster
   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.
   
   1913 Webster
   
         
       

2.       
   torture, v. t. [imp. & p. p. tortured ; p. pr. & vb. n. tTorturing.] [Cf. F. Torturer. ]
   To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
   1913 Webster
   To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
   Shak.
   
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   To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
   Jar. Taylor.
   
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   To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.]
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   The bow tortureth the string.
   Bacon.
   
   1913 Webster