1. (n.) Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind.
2. (n.) 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. (n.) The act or process of torturing.
4. (v. t.) To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
5. (v. t.) To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
6. (v. t.) To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
7. (v. t.) To keep on the stretch, as a bow.
Thesaurus Entries
Procrustean bed, abuse, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, agonizingness, agony, ail, anguish, atrocious pain, bed of Procrustes, befoul, bewitch, bias, bite, blight, bloody, boot, burn, chafe, claw, clawing, color, condemn, confinement, contort, convulse, corrupt, cruciation, crucifixion, crucify, curse, cut, damage, defile, deprave, desolate, desolateness, desolation, despoil, destroy, disadvantage, dismember, dismemberment, disserve, distort, distress, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, draw and quarter, envenom, estrapade, excruciate, excruciatingness, excruciation, fester, fret, gall, galleys, garble, get into trouble, get one wrong, get wrong, give pain, gloss, gnaw, grate, grill, grind, gripe, harass, hard labor, harm, harrow, heartbreak, heartsickness, hell, hell upon earth, hex, holocaust, horror, hurt, impair, impale, impalement, imprisonment, incarceration, infect, inflame, inflict pain, injure, iron heel, irritate, jailing, jinx, keelhaul, keelhauling, kill by inches, lacerate, laceration, lancinate, lancination, macerate, maim, maltreat, mangle, martyr, martyrdom, martyrization, martyrize, menace, misapply, misapprehend, miscite, misconceive, misconstrue, misdeem, misdirect, misexplain, misexplicate, misexpound, misinterpret, misjudge, misquote, misread, misrender, misrepresent, misshape, mistake, mistranslate, mistreat, misunderstand, misuse, molest, mutilate, nightmare, nip, oppress, outrage, pain, passion, penal servitude, persecute, persecution, pervert, picket, picketing, pierce, pinch, play havoc with, play hob with, poison, pollute, prejudice, prick, prolong the agony, punish, purgatory, put to torture, rack, railriding, rankle, rasp, rip, rock pile, rub, savage, scarify, scarpines, scathe, screw, slant, smite, squeeze, stab, sting, strain, strain the sense, strappado, taint, tar and feather, tar-and-feathering, the gantlet, threaten, thumbscrew, torment, tormentingness, torturousness, try, tweak, twist, twist the words, varnish, violate, warp, wheel, wind, wound, wreak havoc on, wrench, wring, wrong
