torture chamber
8
7.7
- noun
- /ˈtɔːrtʃər ˈʧeɪmbər/
- Offensive
:
cámara de tortura
- After Ali's death, Gjirokastra's castle was the site of a small garrison, and then a prison whose courtyards, dark cells, and torture chambers were used by the Nazis and, later, Communists until 1963.
OK, he had talked to other people about the perfect torture chamber for women to rape, torture and murder them.
- OK, he had talked to other people about the perfect torture chamber for women to rape, torture and murder them.
- So I'm not really spooked, but downstairs in, in the police station was a torture chamber.
- You don't even have the courtesy to tell me that you want to use my country for one of your torture chambers.
- So, you know they would have taken a hit, but where they was the administration going to end up in a torture chamber?
- So to avoid that from being a torture chamber, you have to separate out the willingness to to play at that level from the outcome.
Examples
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I felt like we were in a torture chamber!
Blog text (1) -
This is my torture chamber.
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I guess you were right about that torture chamber, huh?
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- You like our torture chamber?
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Are we going to see the torture chamber?
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Take him to the torture chamber.
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They took him to Cromwell's torture chamber.
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Seize Hordred the Huntsman and take him to the torture chamber... at once!
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Followed by guards, Nottingham enters the torture chamber where the captured woodsmen are chained, among them Wulf and Will Scarlet.
Fiction book (1991) -
The prisoner was taken to the torture chamber for interrogation.
Antonyms
How Torturous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a room where people are subjected to torture' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'torture' names the activity and 'chamber' denotes an enclosed room, so their combination transparently denotes a room for that activity. This noun+noun compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'cámara de tortura'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The compound torture chamber comes from a simple, literal image: a chamber, a room, where people were made to suffer torture to punish them or force them to speak. That's why today it means 'a room used for cruel punishment or interrogation'.