torturen.
/ˈtɔːtʃə/, /ˈtɔːtjʊə/, U.S. /ˈtɔrtʃər/ 1. † b. transferred. An instrument or means of torture.
a. The infliction of severe bodily pain, as punishment or a means of persuasion; spec. judicial torture, inflicted by a judicial or quasi-judicial authority, for the purpose of forcing an accused or suspected person to confess, or an unwilling witness to give evidence or information; a form of this (often in plural). to put to (the) torture, to inflict torture upon, to torture.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > torture > [noun]
tintreghc893
tormentc1290
tormentry1375
tormentisec1405
extort1541
torture1551
discruciament1593
discruciation1597
supplice1646
carnifice1657
society > authority > punishment > torture > [verb (transitive)]
bethrowOE
tintreghec1175
tormentc1290
pinse?c1335
anguisha1425
pincha1425
to put to (the) torture1551
agonize1570
torture1594
scorchc1595
flay1782
society > authority > punishment > torture > [noun] > infliction of
tormentingc1290
torture1551
torturing1633
1551 in Acts Privy Council (1891) III. 407 Assisting to the sayd Commissioners for the putting the prisoners..to suche tortours as they shall think expedient.
1608 D. Price Prælium & Præmium 21 To punish the bad, and to prouide some sharpe and fearful tortors for them.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 122 You did deuise Strange Tortures for Offendors. View more context for this quotation
1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures iv. 10 We put the Captain and Pilot to torture, who instantly confessed.
1708 Act 7 Anne c. 21 §5 After [1 July 1709] no Person accused of any Capital Offence or other Crime in Scotland, shall suffer, or be subject or liable to any Torture.
1769 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. (1830) IV. xxv. 326 They erected a rack for torture.
1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece (new ed.) III. xxv. 393 Pisander moved that the persons..should be put to the torture, that all their accomplices might be known.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1871) I. i. 16 According to law, torture..could not..be inflicted on an English subject.
1882 S. R. Gardiner Hist. Eng. (1884) VI. lxv. 359 (note) 2 Torture had been allowed [in England] by custom as inflicted by the prerogative, but not by law... Torture was inflicted as late as 1640 by prerogative.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > torture > instrument or place of torture > [noun]
griper1598
torturea1616
shiners1630
wooden horse1731
iron mask1752
a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) iv. iii. 124 He calles for the tortures, what will you say without em? View more context for this quotation
1626 G. Sandys tr. Ovid Metamorphosis ix. 178 To teare the torture [L. letiferam vestem] off, he striues.
1721–2 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. (1837) II. ii. xiii. §5. 458/2 His leg being in the torture [i.e. the boot].
2.
a. Severe or excruciating pain or suffering (of body or mind); anguish, agony, torment; the infliction of such.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > [noun]
tintreghc893
threat971
piningOE
murderOE
anguish?c1225
woea1250
pinec1275
tormentc1290
languorc1300
heartbreakc1330
surcarkingc1330
martyrement1340
threst1340
agonyc1384
martyrdomc1384
tormentryc1386
martyre?a1400
tormentisec1405
rack?a1425
anguishing1433
angorc1450
anguishnessa1475
torture?c1550
heartsickness1556
butchery1582
heartache1587
anguishment1592
living hell1596
discruciation1597
heart-aching1607
throeing1615
rigour1632
crucifixion1648
lancination1649
bosom-hell1674
heart-rending1707
brain-racking1708
tormentation1789
bosom-throe1827
angoisse1910
the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > anguish or torment
piningOE
anguishc1225
pinsing?c1225
tormentc1290
afflictiona1382
martyrdomc1384
tormentryc1386
labourc1390
martyryc1390
throea1393
martyre?a1400
cruelty14..
rack?a1425
hacheec1430
prong1440
agonya1450
ragea1450
pang1482
sowing1487
cruciation1496
afflict?1529
torture?c1550
pincha1566
anguishment1592
discruciament1593
excruciation1618
fellness1642
afflictedness1646
pungency1649
perialgia1848
perialgy1857
racking1896
the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > [noun] > anguish or torment > infliction of
torture1734
?c1550 tr. P. Vergil Eng. Hist. (1846) I. 269 Doe you preferre the horrible tortures of warre beefore tranquillitee?
1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. I3v And that deepe torture may be cal'd a Hell, When more is felt then one hath power to tell. View more context for this quotation
1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate 216 Paine and torture of the intestines.
1659 H. More Immortality of Soul ii. x. §6. 220 Who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies, if he could avoid it?
1734 Bp. Petre Let. in E. H. Burton Life Bp. Challoner (1909) I. 93 He wasted away by degrees under the torture of the Strangury.
1744 M. Bishop Life Matthew Bishop 52 They were in such great Torture, wishing they had never come to Sea.
1797 A. Radcliffe Italian I. ii. 49 He determined to relieve himself from the tortures of suspence.
1878 R. Browning La Saisiaz 353 As in one or other stage Of a torture writhe they.
b. transferred. A cause of severe pain or anguish. (In quot. 1859 humorous.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > cause of mental anguish or torment > [noun]
roodOE
thornc1230
prickc1384
rack?a1425
travailerc1450
goading1548
twinge1548
goad1553
tormentor1553
cut1568
stingera1577
butcher1579
torture1612
bosom-devil1651
wound1844
knife-edge1876
nemesis1933
1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. viii. 106 The labour of learning..Authours without booke..is one of the greatest tortures to the poore schollars.
1859 Habits Good Society xi. 300 Never was a more solemn torture created for mankind than these odious dinner-parties.
1873 P. G. Hamerton Intellect. Life (1875) ii. i. 52 An ugly picture was torture to his cultivated eye.
1908 R. Bagot Anthony Cuthbert xxvii Do not make me put it into words, it is torture!
3. transferred and figurative with various allusions: Severe pressure; violent perversion or ‘wresting’; violent action or operation; severe testing or examination.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > [noun]
brathc1175
reighshipc1275
airc1300
ragec1330
sturdinessc1384
violencea1387
fierceness1435
vehemencyc1487
furiosity1509
fiercetya1513
bremeness?1529
boistousness1530
vehemence1535
bruteness1538
violency1538
violentness1544
vehementness1561
wrath1579
fury1585
torture1605
keenness?1606
ragingness1621
stiffness1623
rapt1632
tempestuousness1648
boisterousnessa1650
rampancy1652
boisture1667
untamedness1727
paroxysm1893
storminess1894
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > misinterpretation > distortion or perversion of meaning > [noun]
wrestingc1444
pervertinga1450
corruptiona1513
straining1528
writhing?1532
hacking1539
violence1546
racking1556
wrying1562
wringing1565
detorting1579
wrest1581
detortion1598
wrench1603
torture1605
distorting1610
violencing1612
refraction1614
misacception1629
distortion1650
distorture1709
misacceptation1721
torturing1753
verbicide1826
stretch1849
twisting1890
queeringness1955
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > pressing, pressure, or squeezing > [noun] > crushing
bruising?a1450
crazing1526
crush1599
torture1605
scrunching1869
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Qq4 All the kernell beeing forced out, and expulsed, with the torture and presse of the Methode. View more context for this quotation
c1670 T. Hobbes Dial. Com. Laws (1681) 147 This Statute cannot by Sir Edw. Cokes Torture be made to say it.
1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 71 All the tortures of Vulcan or corrosive Waters.
1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV lxix. 37 The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss, And boil in endless torture.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) I. iv. 91 Experimental results, that may put his own views to the torture.
1887 Spectator No. 3067. 491/2 Much so-called wit of the present day is nothing more than the systematic torture of words.
Compounds
attributive and in other combinations, as torture-chamber, torture-house, torture-monger, torture-rack, torture-room, torture-wheel; torture-scored adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > torture > [noun] > torturer
pinerOE
wiþerlaȝec1175
tormentorc1290
pincher1368
tortor1570
torturer1597
torture-monger1615
excruciator1864
society > authority > punishment > torture > instrument or place of torture > [noun] > place of torture
quale-housec1225
qualm-housec1225
wall1528
butcheryc1540
torture-chamber1829
torture-house1898
society > authority > punishment > torture > instrument or place of torture > [noun] > wheel
wheelc888
rat1481
rote1526
row1557
torture-wheel1837
1615 J. Stephens Satyrical Ess. (1857) 133 An Impudent Censurer—Is the torture-monger of Wit, ready for execution before Judgement.
1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein I. ix. 275 Building castles with dungeons and torture-chambers.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. i. ii. 14 Torture-wheels and conical oubliettes.
a1847 E. Cook Silence 2 Poverty has a sharp and goading power To wring the torture cry.
1898 S. Coleridge Step by Step 4 The guardian of the secret of the torture-house.
1899 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 2/1 The torture-instinct (common alone to human and feline).
Draft additions September 2018
torture porn n. (a) (originally) pornography depicting scenes of sexual violence; (b) (now chiefly) a subgenre of horror cinema characterized by a focus on inflicted pain or punishment and graphic scenes of torture and suffering.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > [noun] > specific types of literature > pornography > type of
torture porn1989
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > moral or spiritual impurity > indecency > [noun] > pornography > type of
child pornography1967
child porn1974
torture porn1989
hentai1990
1989 United Press Internat. Newswire (Nexis) 17 Apr. Feminists opposed to pornography urged a judge to dismiss obscenity charges.., arguing their streetcorner display against ‘torture porn’ was meant to disgust passersby not titillate them.
1993 Virginia Law Rev. 79 1136 ‘Torture porn’, pictures from hard-core magazines depicting women victimized by brutal sex.
2005 D. Edelstein 28 Dec. in www.slate.com (Internet Archive Wayback Machine 31 Dec 2005) Is this—and, for that matter, the acclaimed Irreversible—torture porn, or is there something transcendent I'm not getting?
2014 J. Höglund Amer. Imperial Gothic (2016) ix. 133 Torture porn relies on images of pain and murder rather than on narrative, even if the narrative is far from inconsequential.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
torturev.
1. transitive. To inflict torture upon, subject to torture; spec. to subject to judicial torture; put to the torture. Also absol.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > torture > [verb (transitive)]
bethrowOE
tintreghec1175
tormentc1290
pinse?c1335
anguisha1425
pincha1425
to put to (the) torture1551
agonize1570
torture1594
scorchc1595
flay1782
1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iii. i. 131 A murtherer or foule felonous theefe..I tortord aboue the rate of common law.
1611 Bible (King James) Heb. xi. 35 Others were tortured [16th c. versions racked], not accepting deliuerance. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 376 Say he be taken, rackt, and tortured; I know, no paine they can inflict vpon him, Will make him say, I mou'd him to those Armes. View more context for this quotation
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. x. 480 Hee thought hee saw a man Torturing [i.e. being tortured].
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. xiv. 70 What is in that case confessed, tendeth to the ease of him that is Tortured.
1847 L. H. Kerr tr. L. von Ranke Hist. Servia x. 203 Shall I live to see thee slowly tortured to death by the Turks?
1896 ‘M. Field’ Attila ii. 48 You will not torture? Placidia. We use that to extort confession, not As punishment.
2. To inflict severe pain or suffering upon; to torment; to distress or afflict grievously; also, to exercise the mind severely, to puzzle or perplex greatly. Also absol. to cause extreme pain.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > cause of mental anguish or torment > cause anguish to or torment [verb (transitive)]
quelmeOE
eatc1000
martyrOE
fretc1175
woundc1175
to-fret?c1225
gnawc1230
to-traya1250
torment1297
renda1333
anguish1340
grindc1350
wringc1374
debreakc1384
ofpinec1390
rivea1400
urn1488
reboil1528
whip1530
cruciate1532
pinch1548
spur-galla1555
agonize1570
rack1576
cut1582
excruciate1590
scorchc1595
discruciate1596
butcher1597
split1597
torture1598
lacerate1600
harrow1603
hell1614
to eat upa1616
arrow1628
martyrize1652
percruciate1656
tear1666
crucify1702
flay1782
wrench1798
kill1800
to cut up1843
the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > types of pain > affect with type of pain [verb (transitive)] > affect with anguish or torment
tintreghec1175
torment1297
raimc1300
pinse?c1335
grindc1350
sowa1352
pang1520
rack1562
torture1598
throea1616
pincer1620
excruciate1623
thumbscrew1771
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost v. ii. 60 That same Berowne ile torture ere I go. View more context for this quotation
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xvi. 659/2 To consider how Writers torture vs with the diuersities of reports.
1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. xi. 985 The closing Flesh..ceas'd to glow, The Wound to torture, and the Blood to flow.
1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. xxix. 204 When the mind is tortured, it is not at the command of any outward power. It is the sense of guilt which constitutes the punishment, and creates that torture.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 67 Jeffreys was..tortured by a cruel internal malady.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xii. 167 It was rumoured..that he was tortured by painful emotions.
3. figurative.
a. To act upon violently in some way, so as to strain, twist, wrench, distort, pull or knock about, etc.
ΚΠ
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §137 The Bow tortureth the String continually, and thereby holdeth it in a Continuall Trepidation.
1743 J. Davidson tr. Virgil Æneid vii. 198 A top whirling under the twisted lash, which boys..exercise and torture in a large circuit.
1822 P. B. Shelley To Jane: Recoll. Pines..Tortured by storms to shapes as rude As serpents interlaced.
1873 B. Harte Episode of Fiddletown 120 I stood at the glass in the desperate attempt to torture my hair after the fashion of young Wobbles.
b. To ‘twist’ (language, etc.) from the proper or natural meaning or form; to distort, pervert. Also with into.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > misinterpretation > distortion or perversion of meaning > pervert or distort [verb (transitive)]
crooka1340
deprave1382
pervertc1390
strainc1449
drawc1450
miswrest?a1475
bewrya1522
wry?1521
to make a Welshman's hose ofa1529
writhea1533
wrest1533
invert1534
wring?1541
depravate1548
rack1548
violent1549
wrench1549
train1551
wreathe1556
throw1558
detorta1575
shuffle1589
wriggle1593
distortc1595
to put, set, place, etc. on the rack1599
twine1600
wire-draw1610
monstrify1617
screw1628
corrupt1630
gloss1638
torture1648
force1662
vex1678
refract1700
warp1717
to put a force upon1729
twist1821
ply1988
1648 W. Jenkyn Ὁδηγος Τυϕλος i. 8 To torture Scripture for the defending of his errors.
1682 J. Dryden Mac Flecknoe 13 There thou mayst..torture one poor Word ten thousand ways.
1789 J. Moore Zeluco I. ix. 80 What he said was excusable; to endeavour to torture it into mutiny would be absurd.
1803 Visct. Strangford in tr. L. V. de Camoens Poems 121 It is surprising that this idea has not been more ramified and tortured by the English metaphysical poets of that school.
1840 E. A. Poe Fall House of Usher (new ed.) in Tales of Grotesque & Arabesque I. 76 An unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.
1869 J. B. Brown Christian Policy Life (1880) 281 There might be a sentence here and there which might be tortured to bear that meaning.
1956 E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics vi. 232 It is possible to torture almost any statement into the logical form of an implication.
4. To extract by torture; to extort. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > extortion > practise extortion on [verb (transitive)]
ransom?a1425
to poll and pill1528
exact1534
bloodsuck?1541
extort1561
rack1576
flay1584
shave1606
wire-draw1616
punisha1626
sponge1631
squeeze1639
screwa1643
to screw up1655
bleed1680
torture1687
to screw down1725
to shake down1872
to squeeze (someone) until the pips squeak1918
to bleed white1935
rent1956
1687 tr. Sallust (1692) 29 They..by all manner of extortions hale and torture money to themselves.
1818 J. Keats Endymion iii. 117 Like a wretch from whom the rack Tortures hot breath, and speech of agony.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.?c1550v.1594