tormentor
Americannoun
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a person or thing that torments.
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Theater. a curtain or framed structure behind the proscenium at both sides of the stage, for screening the wings from the audience.
noun
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a person or thing that torments
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a curtain or movable piece of stage scenery at either side of the proscenium arch, used to mask lights or exits and entrances
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films a panel of sound-insulating material placed outside the field of the camera to control the acoustics on the sound stage
Etymology
Origin of tormentor
1250–1300; Middle English tormento ( u ) r < Anglo-French; Old French tormenteor. See torment, -or 2
Explanation
A tormentor is someone who terrorizes another person, deliberately making them suffer. If your sister keeps tickling you after you desperately beg her not to, feel free to call her your tormentor. A tormentor is a person who torments, and both words are strongly related to torture — they share a root that means "to twist." A tormentor doesn't torture once, though, but inflicts pain over a long period of time. While tormentor is often used in a light-hearted way, as when you say your devilish new kitten is your Great Dane's tormentor, it can also be used with reference to serious situations.
Vocabulary lists containing tormentor
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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.
The tow rope snapped, the Tormentor and her skeleton crew of four vanished into the storm.
From Time Magazine Archive
Off the Welsh coast the British destroyer Tormentor, dismantled, was being towed to a shipbreaking yard.
From Time Magazine Archive
The reader will doubtless conclude that, now at least, having satisfactorily settled his demands, I had done with my Tormentor for ever.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 324, July 26, 1828 by Various
Now, Loue, if thou wilt proue a Conqueror, Subdue thys Tyrant euer martyring mee; And but appoint me for her Tormentor, Then for a Monarch will I honour thee.
From Minor Poems of Michael Drayton by Brett, Cyril
Yes, my Tormentor—my mysterious—omnipresent Tormentor was indeed gone; and in that one word, how much of vengeance was forgotten!
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 324, July 26, 1828 by Various
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.
