torment

[tawr-ment, tawr-ment, tawr-ment]

verb (used with object)

1. to afflict with great bodily or mental suffering; pain.

   to be tormented with violent headaches.

   Synonyms: agonize, distress, vex, vex, hector, harry
   Antonyms: please

2. to worry or annoy excessively.

   to torment one with questions.

   Synonyms: fret, trouble, trouble, needle, provoke, tease, pester, plague, plague

3. to throw into commotion; stir up; disturb.

noun

1. a state of great bodily or mental suffering; agony; misery.

   Synonyms: anguish, distress, torture

2. something that causes great bodily or mental pain or suffering.

3. a source of much trouble, worry, or annoyance.

4. an instrument of torture, as the rack or the thumbscrew.

5. the infliction of torture by means of such an instrument or the torture so inflicted.

torment

verb

1. to afflict with great pain, suffering, or anguish; torture

2. to tease or pester in an annoying way

   stop tormenting the dog

noun

1. physical or mental pain

2. a source of pain, worry, annoyance, etc

3. archaic,  an instrument of torture

4. archaic,  the infliction of torture

Other Word Forms

• tormentedly adverb
• tormentingly adverb
• tormentingness noun
• untormented adjective
• untormenting adjective
• untormentingly adverb
• tormenting adjective
• tormented adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of torment¹

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 )

Word History and Origins

Origin of torment¹

C13: from Old French, from Latin tormentum, from torquēre

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

A victim of the Rochdale child grooming gangs killed herself after years of torment over the scandal, a coroner has ruled.

From BBC

Later in his career, that notion held true for his performance as Our Man, a tormented sailor adrift at sea in “All is Lost.”

From Los Angeles Times

The 65-year-old said the torment of not knowing what has happened to him has been "soul-destroying".

From BBC

"The government gradually blocked people from making a living independently, and the very act of living became a daily torment," she testified to researchers.

From BBC

If his tormented characters don’t die by the film’s end, any freedom or peace they’re allowed comes at a price just as steep.

From Salon

Related Words

• afflict 
• annoy 
• bedevil 
• bother 
• harass 
• hound 
• hurt 
• irritate 
• mistreat 
• molest 
• nag 
• pester 
• plague 
• smite 
• tease 
• torture 
• vex