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The act of torturing; torture; torment. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

To vex or torment. Beau. & FL.

Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless. Behold a people cometh from the north country; . . . they are cruel and have no mercy. Jer. vi. 22,23.

that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment. On impious realms and barbarous kings impose Thy plagues, and curse 'em with such sons as those. Pope. To curse by bell, book, and candle. See under Bell.

; very poor. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Heb. xi. 37.

Afflicted with disease. It is my own diseased imagination that torments me. W. Irving.

on; to bear down upon with violence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict. [Obs.] "Distrained with chains." Chaucer.

To vex; to torment; to trouble. [Obs.] As man that in his dream is drecched sore. Chaucer.

Liable to torment. [R.] Bailey.

To inflict agonizing pain upon; to torture; to torment greatly; to rack; as, to excruciate the heart or the body. Their thoughts, like devils, them excruciate. Drayton.

Capability of being exhausted. I was seriously tormented by the thought of the exhaustibility of musical combinations. J. S. Mill.

To harass; to torment; to distress. [Obs.] Spenser.

To waste away completely by suffering or torment. [Archaic] "Pale as a forpined ghost." Chaucer.

Furious; raging; tormenting. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To torment, as if by broiling. Dickens.

esh see corruption. Acts ii. 31 (Rev. Ver.). And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. Luke xvi.23 (Rev. Ver.).

To break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress; to vex. My aged muscles harrowed up with whips. Rowe. I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul. Shak.

To tease; to worry; to torment. [Colloq.]

To treat with insolence; to threaten; to bully; hence, to torment by words; to tease; to taunt; to worry or irritate by bullying. Dryden.

te of punishment for the wicked after death; the abode of evil spirits. Hence, any mental torment; anguish. "Within him hell." Milton. It is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Shak.