torment

[ verb tawr-ment, tawr-ment; noun 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, hector, harry

   Antonyms: please

2. to worry or annoy excessively:

   to torment one with questions.

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

Derived Forms

• torˈmenting, adjectivenoun
• torˈmentedly, adverb
• torˈmented, adjective
• torˈmentingly, adverb

Other Words From

• tor·mented·ly adverb
• tor·menting·ly adverb
• tor·menting·ness noun
• untor·mented adjective
• untor·menting adjective
• untor·menting·ly adverb

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

The 30 years since her death have seen a so-far fruitless search for her killer and decades of torment for her family.

From BBC

Telling the story as a musical is "the best way of accessing the heartache and the torment and the isolation" of the victims, co-writer Jeanie O'Hare told BBC News.

From BBC

The whipping-sound phone app was well known among students and became a tool of racial torment used to humiliate and degrade Black students during the 2022-2023 school year, the lawsuit alleges.

From Los Angeles Times

Throughout the hearing, the court heard of the depravity of McCartney’s actions, children pleading for their torment to stop as he demanded they commit acts of humiliation, abuse and danger.

From BBC

Zelensky said in his speech on Wednesday that Russia had destroyed all of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and a large part of its hydroelectric capacity as a way to “torment” Ukrainians ahead of winter.

From BBC

Related Words

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