torture
n. C / Un. the act of causing someone terrible physical or mental pain, often to get information or as a punishment. It can also describe a very unpleasant or difficult experience.
n. the infliction of severe physical or mental suffering, typically as a means of coercion or retribution. Often used figuratively to describe an excruciatingly tedious or painful ordeal.
The long wait for the results was pure torture.
International law strictly prohibits the use of torture under any circumstances, even during times of war.
The protagonist endures the psychological torture of isolation, a narrative device used to explore the fragility of the human mind when stripped of social contact.
From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortūra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Medieval Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin tortus (whence also tort), past participle of torquēre (“to twist”).
Uncountable when referring to the practice in general; countable when referring to specific instances or types of suffering.