Definition of torture
- n. - Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony;
torment; as, torture of mind.
- 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.
- n. - The act or process of torturing.
- v. t. - To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to
vex.
- v. t. - To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to
torture an accused person.
- v. t. - To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
- v. t. - To keep on the stretch, as a bow.