self-torment

[self-tawr-ment, self-]

noun

1. an act or instance of tormenting oneself, as with worry or guilt.

Other Word Forms

• self-tormented adjective
• self-tormenting adjective
• self-tormentingly adverb
• self-tormentor noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-torment¹

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

Mr. Smith’s subject is revealed to be obsession and self-torment, not least a father’s rabid overinfatuation with a child he cannot possess romantically.

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Among the radical or progressive left, those people most likely to take a critical view of American policy and power, this bipolar disorder has produced many varieties of arcane self-torment and infighting over the years.

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Was then not all sorrow in time, all self-torment and fear in time?

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Add self-torment to that list of emotions she understands.

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The play’s first line of dialogue — the witch’s query “When shall we three meet again?” — is in this version also its last, as the limp, exhausted man onstage begins his elaborate ritual of self-torment anew.

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