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.