(n.) Especially, severe pain inflicted judicially, either as punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a confession from an accused person, as by water or fire, by the boot or thumbkin, or by the rack or wheel.
(n.) Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind.
(n.) The act or process of torturing.
(v. t.) To keep on the stretch, as a bow.
(v. t.) To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
(v. t.) To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
(v. t.) To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.