From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Torture \Tor"ture\ (t[^o]r"t[-u]r; 135), noun [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}, noun, {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, 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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
torture \tor"ture\, verb (used with an object) [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.
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) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
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}]
verb
1: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: {torment}, {excruciate}, {rack}]
2: subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible" [syn: {excruciate}, {torment}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
206 Moby Thesaurus words for "torture": 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
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