to torture

Examples

• All

• Like how, how, no, why would you torture them like this?

• And then they went on to sort of torture me for about two hours.

  Shawn Ryan Show

• It's when I kind of torture myself over whether I should make the move or not.

• I decided, you know what, it is time for me to torture myself and and do this.

  BookswithEmilyFox

• It's not just something that we use to torture middle school students.

• Come here to torture me before the appointed time?

  Nefarious (2023)

• I have no wish to be tortured again.

  Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

• I was just like, stop torturing my baby.

• We didn't even torture you yet.

  Hell of a Summer (2023)

• The villain threatened to torture his captive until he revealed the hidden secrets.

Synonyms

T

to torment

vsto torture

• NSFW

107 7.2

To cause someone to feel great physical or mental pain

is like that but stresses deliberate infliction of pain

R

to rack

vsto torture

43 7.5

To cause great physical or mental pain

is direct deliberate physical or mental harm rather than mainly strain

B

to brutalize

vsto torture

• Offensive

34 7.7

Treat someone cruelly with violence or make them numb to suffering

focuses on causing severe pain rather than making someone cruel

E

to excruciate

vsto torture

8 9.9

To cause someone very great physical or mental pain

is similar but focuses on deliberate severe suffering

M

to martyrize

vsto torture

• Offensive

9.9

To make someone suffer or kill them because of their beliefs

is about deliberate severe harm not about creating martyr status

Antonyms

C

to comfort

172 1.0

To make someone feel less upset or in pain

S

to soothe

63 3.4

To make someone feel calmer or reduce their pain

Compounds

T

torture chamber

• Offensive

8 7.7

A room where people are made to feel pain to punish or force them to speak

I

instrument of torture

• NSFW

1 9.1

A tool made to cause severe pain to punish or force someone

S

self-torture

1 7.4

Causing yourself pain by thinking a lot about bad things

C

Chinese water torture

• NSFW

9.9

A slow, very annoying experience that makes you feel anxious, like drops falling again and again

G

genital torture

• Offensive

9.9

Causing pain on purpose to a person's private parts as abuse

J

judicial torture

• Offensive

9.9

Harmful actions by government officials to force a person to confess in a court case

S

Spanish torture

• Informal

9.9

A joking way to describe something very annoying or upsetting to experience

How Painful

to torture

• Offensive

582 5.7

to torment

• NSFW

107 7.2

to injure

53 1.6

to hurt

∞ 1.0

to upset

362 1.0

Surface Forms

Etymology