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Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind. Shak. Ghastly spasm or racking torture. Milton.

One who tortures; a tormentor.

To torture beforehand. Fuller.

The act of inflicting pain on one's self; pain inflicted on one's self.

To cause to suffer agony; to subject to extreme pain; to torture. He agonized his mother by his behavior. Thackeray.

An instrument of torture for the leg, formerly used to extort confessions, particularly in Scotland. So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between them and the leg. Bp. Burnet.

A kind of torture. See Boot, n., 2.

An ancient instrument of torture. Holinshed. Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary. -- Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels. -- Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe. -- Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake agains…

To torture; to torment. [Obs.] See Excruciate. Bale.

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

To torture; to excruciate. [Obs.] Discruciate a man in deep distress. Herrick.

id and devastating incursion; dragoonade. He learnt it as he watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the Netherlands. C. Kingsley.

nstrument by which any effect is produced; especially, an instrument or machine of war or torture. "Terrible engines of death." Sir W. Raleigh.

n of Chaos and brother of Nox, who dwelt in Erebus. To the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile. Shak.

Excruciated; tortured. And here my heart long time excruciate. Chapman.

inflicting agonizing pain, or the state of being thus afflicted; that which excruciates; torture. Feltham.

To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of…

Cruel; barbarous; inhuman; fierce; savage; ravenous. While we devise fell tortures for thy faults. Shak.

Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.

Torture by pinching with forceps or pinchers. Bacon.