torment
Americanverb (used with object)
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to afflict with great bodily or mental suffering; pain.
to be tormented with violent headaches.
- Antonyms:
- please
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to worry or annoy excessively.
to torment one with questions.
-
to throw into commotion; stir up; disturb.
noun
-
a state of great bodily or mental suffering; agony; misery.
-
something that causes great bodily or mental pain or suffering.
-
a source of much trouble, worry, or annoyance.
-
an instrument of torture, as the rack or the thumbscrew.
-
the infliction of torture by means of such an instrument or the torture so inflicted.
verb
-
to afflict with great pain, suffering, or anguish; torture
-
to tease or pester in an annoying way
stop tormenting the dog
noun
-
physical or mental pain
-
a source of pain, worry, annoyance, etc
-
archaic an instrument of torture
-
archaic the infliction of torture
Related Words
Torment , rack , torture suggest causing great physical or mental pain, suffering, or harassment. To torment is to afflict or harass as by incessant repetition of vexations or annoyances: to be tormented by doubts. To rack is to affect with such pain as that suffered by one stretched on a rack; to concentrate with painful effort: to rack one's brains. To torture is to afflict with acute and more or less protracted suffering: to torture one by keeping one in suspense.
Other Word Forms
- tormented adjective
- tormentedly adverb
- tormenting adjective
- tormentingly adverb
- tormentingness noun
- untormented adjective
- untormenting adjective
- untormentingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of torment
First recorded in 1250–1300; (noun) Middle English, from Old French, from Latin tormentum “rope, catapult, torture,” from unattested tork w -ment- ( torque, -ment ); (verb) Middle English tormenten, from Old French tormenter, derivative of torment (compare Late Latin tormentāre )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It is very tormenting as I have to look at... things I do not want to see," Fung told AFP.
From Barron's
A shadow, possibly related to the death of her parents in a house fire when she was a girl, has been tormenting her for ages.
From Los Angeles Times
The role neatly utilizes Clooney’s gifts for physical comedy, verbal dexterity and conveying inner torment.
From Los Angeles Times
He went along with the loudest voices in his party to minimize his torment at the hands of activists.
That said, once I was president and then CEO of Viacom, I had to deal with more unpleasant stuff and was tormented by Sumner, earnings calls and unpleasant suit stuff to me.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
