Search the Dictionary

To punish or torture by the strappado. Milton.

The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing. Strike block (Carp.), a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint. Moxon. -- Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. -- Strike of sugar. (Sugar Making) (a) The act…

To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.

A concession made for the purpose of retorting with greater force.

Any one of numerous species of tortoises living in fresh and brackish waters. Many of them are valued for food. [Written also terapin, terrapen, terrapene, and turapen.]

Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a tortoise.

Of or pertaining to the shell of a tortoise; resembling a tortoise shell; having the color or markings of a tortoise shell.

An order of reptiles which includes the turtles and tortoises. The body is covered by a shell consisting of an upper or dorsal shell, called the carapace, and a lower or ventral shell, called the plastron, each of which consists of several plates.

Resembling a tortoise shell in appearance or structure; roofed; arched; vaulted.

Resembling the shell of a tortoise.

A genus of tortoises which formerly included a large number of diverse forms, but is now restricted to certain terrestrial species, such as the European land tortoise (Testudo Græca) and the gopher of the Southern United States.

Any sea tortoise.

dv. Threatening letters (Law), letters containing threats, especially those designed to extort money, or to obtain other property, by menaces; blackmailing letters.

b) To reject; as, to throw away a good book, or a good offer. -- To throw back. (a) To retort; to cast back, as a reply. (b) To reject; to refuse. (c) To reflect, as light. -- To throw by, to lay aside; to discard; to neglect as useless; as, to throw by a garment. -- To throw down, to subvert; to overthrow; to destr…

An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.

An old instrument of torture for compressing the thumb by a screw; a thumbkin.

e face, one extending back from the eye, and one from the angle of the mouth. Called also tortoise-shell tiger. -- Mexican tiger (Zoöl.), the jaguar. -- Tiger beetle (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of active carnivorous beetles of the family Cicindelidæ. They usually inhabit dry or sandy places, and fly rapidly.…

Extreme pain; anguish; torture; the utmost degree of misery, either of body or mind. Chaucer. The more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me. Milton.

Torture; torment. [Obs.] Chaucer.

One who, or that which, torments; one who inflicts penal anguish or tortures. Jer. Taylor. Thoughts, my tormentors, armed with deadly stings. Milton.