tortured
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past participleof torture.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
torturenounthe act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. -
past tense formof torture.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
torturenounthe act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. -
a word derived from
torture.
torturenounthe act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
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.
“Underneath an artist’s preoccupations with sex, society, religion, etc.,” the narrator insists, “there is a soul tortured beyond endurance by the lack of tenderness in the world.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He was the emotionally tortured and volatile chef who left behind a rising career in Michelin-starred restaurants to return to Chicago, his hometown, to run his recently deceased brother’s floundering sandwich joint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Louis, in comparison, is kinda busted — gloomy, tortured, unable to fully embrace the everlasting banquet Lestat has laid out for him.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
“We would get together and have these very long conversations,” says director Rebecca Miller, who interviewed American cinema’s great poet of tortured masculinity over five years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
Then I heard a cry, whether of bird or child or my own tortured self I do not know, and the redness cleared.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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