Synonyms:
torture, torturing
Meaning: 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"
Usage examples
"You are torturing me, Chauvelin.
he delights in torturing helpless creatures!"
"Diane, you are torturing yourself unnecessarily.
For these two days of holiday all this had been torturing me till it made me ill.
It was probably composed whilst Nero, the wicked Emperor, was torturing and burning the followers of Christ.
Having shrieked in a torturing voice and mouthed extravagant names, the old toad rolled her tearless eyes with great satisfaction.
He would never have the torturing happiness of holding her in his arms again, would never again clasp her against the heart that was crying out for her with the same mad passion that had swept over him yesterday.
We leave thus the torturing of texts in the dim cells of the theological Inquisition, a process by which almost any confession required can be and has been wrung from the unfortunate victims, and emerge into the open daylight of common-sense and reason.