torture

tor·ture

T0283300 (tôr′chər)n.1. Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion.2. Excruciating physical or mental pain; agony: the torture suffered by inmates in the camp.3. An experience or cause of severe pain or anguish: "Just to watch them handling thick woolen winter coats in that heat was, for me, a torture" (Arthur Miller).tr.v. tor·tured, tor·tur·ing, tor·tures 1. To subject (a person or animal) to torture.2. To bring great physical or mental pain upon (another). See Synonyms at afflict.3. To overwork, misinterpret, or distort: torture a metaphor throughout an essay; torture a rule to make it fit a case.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin tortūra, from Latin tortus, past participle of torquēre, to twist; see terk^w- in Indo-European roots.]

tor′tur·er n.

torture

(ˈtɔːtʃə) vb (tr) 1. to cause extreme physical pain to, esp in order to extract information, break resistance, etc: to torture prisoners. 2. to give mental anguish to3. to twist into a grotesque formn4. physical or mental anguish5. the practice of torturing a person6. a cause of mental agony or worry[C16: from Late Latin tortūra a twisting, from torquēre to twist] ˈtortured adj ˈtorturedly adv ˈtorturer n ˈtorturesome, ˈtorturous adj ˈtorturing adj ˈtorturingly adv ˈtorturously advUsage: The adjective torturous is sometimes confused with tortuous. One speaks of a torturous experience, i.e. one that involves pain or suffering, but of a tortuous road, i.e. one that winds or twists

tor•ture

(ˈtɔr tʃər)

n., v. -tured, -tur•ing. n. 1. the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. 2. a method of inflicting such pain. 3. Often, tortures. the pain or suffering caused or undergone. 4. extreme anguish of body or mind; agony. 5. a cause of severe pain or anguish. v.t. 6. to subject to torture. 7. to afflict with severe pain of body or mind. 8. to twist, force, or bring into some unnatural shape. [1530–40; < Late Latin tortūra a twisting] tor′tur•er, n.

torture

ordeal - From Old English ordel, "judgment," figuratively, an experience testing endurance, patience, courage, etc.—also a test of guilt or innocence that was one of severe pain or torture.
torment - Comes from a Latin word, tormentum, for an instrument of torture.
tortuous, torturous - Tortuous is "winding, crooked, full of twists and turns," and torturous, based on "torture," is "painful, characterized by suffering."
travel - From Latin trepaliare, "torture," it evolved into "journey" from the allusion to the inevitable trouble of medieval travel.

torture

Past participle: tortured
Gerund: torturing

Imperative
torture
torture

Present
I torture
you torture
he/she/it tortures
we torture
you torture
they torture

Preterite
I tortured
you tortured
he/she/it tortured
we tortured
you tortured
they tortured

Present Continuous
I am torturing
you are torturing
he/she/it is torturing
we are torturing
you are torturing
they are torturing

Present Perfect
I have tortured
you have tortured
he/she/it has tortured
we have tortured
you have tortured
they have tortured

Past Continuous
I was torturing
you were torturing
he/she/it was torturing
we were torturing
you were torturing
they were torturing

Past Perfect
I had tortured
you had tortured
he/she/it had tortured
we had tortured
you had tortured
they had tortured

Future
I will torture
you will torture
he/she/it will torture
we will torture
you will torture
they will torture

Future Perfect
I will have tortured
you will have tortured
he/she/it will have tortured
we will have tortured
you will have tortured
they will have tortured

Future Continuous
I will be torturing
you will be torturing
he/she/it will be torturing
we will be torturing
you will be torturing
they will be torturing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been torturing
you have been torturing
he/she/it has been torturing
we have been torturing
you have been torturing
they have been torturing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been torturing
you will have been torturing
he/she/it will have been torturing
we will have been torturing
you will have been torturing
they will have been torturing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been torturing
you had been torturing
he/she/it had been torturing
we had been torturing
you had been torturing
they had been torturing

Conditional
I would torture
you would torture
he/she/it would torture
we would torture
you would torture
they would torture

Past Conditional
I would have tortured
you would have tortured
he/she/it would have tortured
we would have tortured
you would have tortured
they would have tortured

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	torture - extreme mental distress anguish, tormentdistress, hurt, suffering - psychological suffering; "the death of his wife caused him great distress"
	2.	torture - unbearable physical pain tormenthurting, pain - a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder; "the patient developed severe pain and distension"
	3.	torture - intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain; "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned"agony, tormenthurt, suffering - feelings of mental or physical pain
	4.	torture - the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to meanoverrefinement, twisting, straining, distortionfalsification, misrepresentation - a willful perversion of facts
	5.	torture - the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons in an attempt to force another person to yield information or to make a confession or for any other reason; "it required unnatural torturing to extract a confession"torturingpersecution - the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion)falanga, bastinado - a form of torture in which the soles of the feet are beaten with whips or cudgelsboot - a form of foot torture in which the feet are encased in iron and slowly crushedburning - a form of torture in which cigarettes or cigars or other hot implements are used to burn the victim's skinexcruciation, crucifixion - the infliction of extremely painful punishment or sufferinggenital torture - blunt or penetrating trauma or rape (vaginal or anal)judicial torture - torture that is sanctioned by the state and executed by duly accredited officials; "the English renounced judicial torture in 1640"kia quen - a form of foot torture used by the Chinese in which the victim's foot was placed between three pieces of bamboo and systematically squeezedkittee - a form of torture used by American Indians in which sensitive parts of the body were squeezed between two boards until the victim could bear no morenail pulling, nail removal - a form of torture in which the fingernails or toenails are removedpiquet, picket - a form of military punishment used by the British in the late 17th century in which a soldier was forced to stand on one foot on a pointed stakeprolonged interrogation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by questioning the victim for hoursrack - a form of torture in which pain is inflicted by stretching the bodysensory deprivation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of all sensory inputsleep deprivation - a form of psychological torture inflicted by depriving the victim of sleepstrapado, strappado - a form of torture in which the hands are tied behind a person's back and they are lifted off the ground by a rope tied to their wrists, then allowed to drop until their fall is checked with a jerk by the ropeelectric shock - the use of electricity to administer punishment or torture; "they used cattle prods to administer electric shocks"dismemberment, taking apart - the removal of limbs; being cut to pieces
Verb	1.	torture - torment emotionally or mentally excruciate, torment, rackanguish, pain, hurt - cause emotional anguish or make miserable; "It pains me to see my children not being taught well in school"
	2.	torture - subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible"excruciate, tormentinjure, wound - cause injuries or bodily harm torack - torture on the rackmartyrise, martyrize, martyr - torture and torment like a martyr

torture

verb1. torment, abuse, persecute, afflict, martyr, scourge, molest, crucify, mistreat, ill-treat, maltreat, put on the rack Police are convinced she was tortured and killed.
torment comfort, soothe, console, alleviate, solace, mollify, salve2. torment, worry, trouble, distress, pain, rack, afflict, harrow, agonize, give someone grief (Brit. & S. African), inflict anguish on He would not torture her further by arguing.noun1. ill-treatment, abuse, torment, persecution, martyrdom, maltreatment, harsh treatment alleged cases of torture and murder by security forces2. agony, suffering, misery, anguish, hell, distress, torment, heartbreak Waiting for the result was torture.
agony delight, pleasure, joy, well-being, happiness, enjoyment, amusement, bliss

Torture

Instruments of torture boot, brake, cat-o'-nine-tails, iron maiden, pilliwinks, Procrustean bed, rack, scourge, thumbscrew, wheelTypes of torture bastinado, Chinese water torture, gauntlet, strappado, water cure, water torture

torture

noun1. Excruciating punishment:hell, living hell, persecution, torment.Idiom: tortures of the damned.2. A state of physical or mental suffering:affliction, agony, anguish, distress, hurt, misery, pain, torment, woe, wound, wretchedness.verb1. To subject (another) to extreme physical cruelty, as in punishing:crucify, rack, torment.Idiom: put on the rack.2. To bring great harm or suffering to:afflict, agonize, anguish, curse, excruciate, plague, rack, scourge, smite, strike, torment.

Translations

折磨拷问煎熬痛苦刑讯逼供

torture

(ˈtoːtʃə) verb to treat (someone) cruelly or painfully, as a punishment, or in order to make him/her confess something, give information etc. He tortured his prisoners; She was tortured by rheumatism/jealousy.拷问 noun1. the act or practice of torturing. The king would not permit torture.拷问2. (something causing) great suffering. the torture of waiting to be executed. 痛苦，折磨

torture

→ 刑讯逼供zhCN, 折磨zhCN

torture

torture,

the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering in order to intimidate, coerce, obtain information or a confession, or punish. In international law, the term is usually further restricted to actions committed by persons acting in an official capacity.

The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which came into force in 1987 and to which more than two thirds of the world's nations are parties, bans torture and other abusive treatment of any person, as well as forcibly transferring a person to a nation when there is reason to believe that the person will be tortured. Parties to the treaty must periodically report and answer questions on their compliance before the Committee against Torture in Geneva. The convention restates much of an earlier General Assembly declaration (1975), and the earlier Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966; in force, 1976) also banned torture. In addition, agreements sponsored by regional international organizations also forbid the practice, as do the Geneva Conventions. Despite these international agreements, Amnesty International indicated (2007) that there were reports of the use of torture or other forms of abuse by security or police forces in 102 nations in 2006.

The utility of torture in obtaining useful information from individuals is a matter of debate, and the arguments on both sides rely on anecdotal evidence. Torture is most often justified, even by those who oppose its use generally, in situations where interrogators seek to obtain information from a suspect who has knowledge of an imminent and devastating attack. Whether a terror suspect who had knowledge of a "ticking timebomb" would divulge any useful information under torture likely depends on the psychology of the suspect. That tortured individuals divulge false information is known to be true, and an instance of this was reported to have contributed to the Bush administration's belief that Iraq had helped train militant Islamic terrorists. Studies also have shown that extreme stress can detrimentally affect memory, suggesting that torture, especially if prolonged, might in fact impair recall.

The United States, which regularly denounces the use of torture and abuse internationally in the State Dept.'s well-regarded Human Rights Reports, found itself the object of international criticism when, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Justice Dept. and other administration legal officials construed international strictures against torture narrowly so as to expand the harsh "enhanced interrogation" techniques that could be used, especially by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), when questioning suspected terrorists. Defense Dept. officials asserted (2003) that, as commander in chief, the president was not bound by the international commitments the United States had made concerning the use of torture and could approve any technique that would protect national security. U.S. government officials also argued that harsh treatment was not torture if an interrogator did not intend to torture a prisoner. Some have contended that such arguments directly contributed to reported abuses of terror suspects held at the GuantánamoGuantánamo
, city (1994 est. pop. 200,000), capital of Guantánamo prov., SE Cuba, on the Guaso River. It is the processing center for a rich sugar- and coffee-producing region and has road and rail connections with Santiago de Cuba. Founded in the early 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. Bay naval base and to notorious abuses of Iraqis at the Abu GhraibAbu Ghraib
or Abu Ghurayb
, infamous prison located in the town of Abu Ghraib, c.20 mi (32 km) W of Baghdad, Iraq. Built by British contractors in the 1960s, it occupies c.280 acres (113 hectares) and is comprised of five separate compounds.
..... Click the link for more information. prison. The United States also has transferred lesser terror suspects for detention and interrogation to countries where those suspects were citizens even when those countries were listed in State Dept. reports as using torture, although U.S. officials ostensibly have obtained guarantees against the use of torture in such cases.

U.S. officials subsequently (2004) issued guidelines that called torture abhorrent and retreated on many points from earlier memorandums, but it remained unclear to what degree Bush administration considered the CIA to be bound by U.S. law and international agreements. Revelations concerning Bush administration memorandums and practices led Senator John McCainMcCain, John Sidney, 3d,
1936–2018, U.S. politician, b. Panama Canal Zone. A much decorated navy veteran, he was born into a career naval family and attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1958.
..... Click the link for more information. , who had himself been tortured while a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, to seek (2005) legislation banning cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of terror suspects in U.S. custody, no matter where they are held. It was reported in 2007 that in 2005 the Justice Dept. secretly approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics, including simulated drowning ("waterboarding"), by the CIA. In 2009 it was reported that that the treatment of at least one person held at Guantánamo Bay had met the legal definition of torture and that a secret 2007 International Committee of the Red Cross report had concluded that CIA treatment of some detainees constituted torture. In 2008 President Bush vetoed legislation that would have required the CIA to adhere to U.S. army interrogation standards, but in 2009 President Obama banned any methods that could be considered torture. A Senate Intelligence Committee report whose conclusions were publicly released in 2014 provided details on the use of torture by the CIA in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, relying on the CIA's own documents, and asserted that the CIA's claims of the usefulness of brutal interrogation were contradicted by its own documents. The Senate report largely echoed a nonpartisan review of interrogation and detention practices after 2001 that was released in 2013.

Bibliography

See K. J. Greenberg and J. L. Dratel, ed., The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (2005); D. Rejali, Torture and Democracy (2007); J. Jaffer and A. Singh, Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond (2007); A. M. Dershowitz, Is There a Right To Remain Silent?: Coercive Interrogation and the Fifth Amendment after 9/11 (2008); M. Cohn, ed., The United States and Torture (2011); R. M. Palitto, ed., Torture and State Violence in the United States (2011); M. Fallon, Unjustifiable Means (2017).

Torture of a reputed witch, Herr Lirtzen, Burgomaster of Rheinbach, in 1631. Having endured continuous torture for twenty-four hours, Lirtzen refused to confess to witchcraft and was burnt on the order of Judge Buirmann two days later. Courtesy Fortean Picture Library.

Torture

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

The vast majority of the evidence obtained during the persecutions—evidence that purportedly showed witchcraft to be aligned with black magic and Satanism—was coerced from the accused through the use of torture. Doreen Valiente put it best when she said, "Were I to tell the full and detailed story of how the supposed followers of the Christian God of Love have smeared their blood-stained hands over the pages of human history, I would be accused of anti-Christian prejudice. Yet every detail of such an accusation could be supported by documentary evidence, in sickening abundance."

Torture was widely employed across continental Europe and also in Scotland. It was not permitted in England, although some witch hunters, including Matthew Hopkins, managed to skirt the regulations on most occasions.

In some trials the judge falsely pronounced that confession was obtained without the aid of torture. In his book Cautio Criminales (1631), Friedrich von Spee said, "I wondered at this and made inquiry and learned that in reality they were tortured, but only in an iron vice with sharp-edged bars over the shins, in which they are pressed like a cake, bringing blood and causing intolerable pain, and this is technically called without torture, deceiving those who do not understand the phrases of the inquisition." Doreen Valiente further commented, "The prisoner was stripped and made ready. Women prisoners were supposed to be stripped by respectable matrons; but in practice they were roughly handled and sometimes raped by the torturer's assistants. Then some preliminary taste of torture was inflicted on them, such as whipping, or an application of the thumb-screws. This preparatory examination was not officially reckoned as torture; so those who confessed anything under it were stated in the court records to have confessed voluntarily, without torture."

Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger's infamous Malleus Maleficarum of 1486 emphasized the appropriateness of torture, stating that only confessions obtained under such extremes might be considered genuine and valid. The two monks said, "Some are so soft-hearted and feeble-minded that at the least torture they will confess anything, whether it be true or not [author's italics]. Others are so stubborn that, however much they are tortured, the truth is not to be had from them. There are others who, having been tortured before, are the better able to endure it a second time, since their arms have become accomodated to the stretchings and twistings involved; whereas the effect on others is to make them weaker, so that they can the less easily endure torture."

Malleus Maleficarum prescribed first-degree tortures and second-degree, or "Final," tortures. Those of the first degree included being stripped and flogged, being placed on the rack, and being subjected to the "Spanish Boots," named from their use during the Spanish Inquisition. There were two types of boot: one was adjustable, like a vise, to crush the feet and legs; the other was a large metal device into which boiling water or oil could be poured. The second-degree tortures included the strappado, thumbscrews, squassation, and breaking on the wheel. In the city of Offenburg, Germany, the accused were strapped into an iron chair with a seat studded with iron spikes and a fire lit beneath it.

Accusors considered confession by the witch herself to be the best way to prove witchcraft and especially the Pact with the Devil. They believed that torture was necessary to obtain that confession. Many of the tortures applied are illustrated in contemporary engravings. One such illustration shows thirty people imprisoned in a small room, chained together in pairs. Deprived of food, they eventually became delirious through hunger and began tearing each other to pieces. Other illustrations show people stripped naked and dragged along a tightly-drawn rope which, acting like a saw, would cut the body in two. Some were tied to stakes with fires lit a short distance away, so that they would burn very slowly. Other methods included disemboweling, eye-gouging, flogging, burning, stretching on a rack, and pouring water into the stomach until it swelled and burst, as well as squassation and the use of ovens and red-hot pincers. One ingenious torture involved trapping dormice on the victim's stomach, with a bowl over them. A fire was then kindled on top of the bowl, prompting the dormice to burrow into the stomach in an attempt to escape the heat. This particular cruelty was committed in the Gueux, Holland (pictured in Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri Temporis, Antwerp, 1587).

A common torture was the strappado, from the Latin strappare, "to pull," which involved pulling the victim's limbs from the sockets. His or her hands were tied behind the back and then a rope passed over a pulley in the ceiling. Hauling on the rope, the torturers lifted the victim off the floor, then tied weights to the feet until the arms separated from their sockets. Additionally, the person was often raised to near the ceiling, then allowed to fall but stopped just short of the ground. Pregnant women were allowed to land on their belly.

Other extreme tortures included the cutting off of hands and ears, immersion in scalding baths laced with lime, and the searing of the flesh with red-hot pincers. If an accused witch later recanted his or her confession, he or she was immediately returned to the torture chamber. In 1630, in Bamberg, Germany, Barbara Schwartz was tortured eight times.

Age was no barrier to torture. The elderly and the very young were all subjected to the same atrocities. In Bamberg, in 1614, a woman of seventy-four died under torture, while in Catton, in Suffolk, England, an eighty-year-old woman was repeatedly forced to sit on a chair studded with the points of knives. In 1617, at Castletown on the Isle of Man, Margaretine Quane and her ten-year-old son were both burned alive at the stake. At Rintel, in 1689, a nine-year-old girl was flogged while watching her grandmother burn at the stake, and at Würzburg, Germany, in 1628, two eleven-year-old girls were burned.

Over the years authorites changed and with them, so did the methods of torture. In Alsace, France, in 1573, a woman was accused by the Protestants and found not guilty. Four years later she was again accused, this time by the Catholics. They tortured her seven times before obtaining a "confession," then found her guilty and burned her at the stake. Sir John Fortescue (In Praise of the Laws of England, 1468) commented on the French laws: "They choose rather to put the accused themselves to the rack till they confess their guilt. . . . Some are extended on the rack till their very sinews crack, and the veins gush out in streams of blood: others have weights hung to their feet till their limbs are almost torn asunder and the whole body distorted: some have their mouths gagged to such a wideness for such a long time, whereat such quantities of water are poured in that their bellies swell to a prodigious degree, and then being pierced by a faucet, spigot, or other instrument for the purpose, the water spouts out in great abundance, like the whale. . . . To describe the inhumanity of such exquisite tortures affects me with too real a concern, and the varieties of them are not to be recounted in a large volume."

Torture

Marsyasflute player who challenges Apollo, loses, and is flayed alive for his presumption. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 588]St. Bartholomewmartyr flayed alive before being crucified. [Hagiog.: Collier’s, III, 77]

torture

tor·ture

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tor•ture

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Bibliography

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Synonyms for torture

verb torment

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Antonyms

verb torment

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noun ill-treatment

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noun agony

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Synonyms for torture

noun excruciating punishment

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noun a state of physical or mental suffering

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verb to subject (another) to extreme physical cruelty, as in punishing

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verb to bring great harm or suffering to

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Synonyms for torture

noun extreme mental distress

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noun unbearable physical pain

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noun intense feelings of suffering

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noun the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean

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noun the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons in an attempt to force another person to yield information or to make a confession or for any other reason

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verb torment emotionally or mentally

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verb subject to torture

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