torment

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
torment
    n 1: unbearable physical pain [syn: {torture}, {torment}]
    2: extreme mental distress [syn: {anguish}, {torment},
       {torture}]
    3: intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain;
       "an agony of doubt"; "the torments of the damned" [syn:
       {agony}, {torment}, {torture}]
    4: a feeling of intense annoyance caused by being tormented; "so
       great was his harassment that he wanted to destroy his
       tormentors" [syn: {harassment}, {torment}]
    5: a severe affliction [syn: {curse}, {torment}]
    6: the act of harassing someone [syn: {badgering}, {worrying},
       {torment}, {bedevilment}]
    v 1: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: {torment}, {torture},
         {excruciate}, {rack}]
    2: treat cruelly; "The children tormented the stuttering
       teacher" [syn: {torment}, {rag}, {bedevil}, {crucify}, {dun},
       {frustrate}]
    3: subject to torture; "The sinners will be tormented in Hell,
       according to the Bible" [syn: {torture}, {excruciate},
       {torment}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Torment \Tor*ment"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {tormented}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {tormenting}.] [OF. tormenter, F. tourmenter.]
   1. To put to extreme pain or anguish; to inflict excruciating
      misery upon, either of body or mind; to torture. " Art
      thou come hither to torment us before our time? " --Matt.
      viii. 29.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To pain; to distress; to afflict.
      [1913 Webster]

            Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy,
            grievously tormented.                 --Matt. viii.
                                                  6.
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   3. To tease; to vex; to harass; as, to be tormented with
      importunities, or with petty annoyances. [Colloq.]
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To put into great agitation. [R.] "[They], soaring on main
      wing, tormented all the air." --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Torment \Tor"ment\, n. [OF. torment, F. tourment, fr. L.
   tormentum an engine for hurling missiles, an instrument of
   torture, a rack, torture, fr. torquere to turn, to twist,
   hurl. See {Turture}.]
   1. (Mil. Antiq.) An engine for casting stones. [Obs.] --Sir
      T. Elyot.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Extreme pain; anguish; torture; the utmost degree of
      misery, either of body or mind. --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            The more I see
            Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
            Torment within me.                    --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. That which gives pain, vexation, or misery.
      [1913 Webster]

            They brought unto him all sick people that were
            taken with divers diseases and torments. --Matt. iv.
                                                  24.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Torment
Gr. basanos (Matt. 4:24), the "touch-stone" of justice; hence
inquisition by torture, and then any disease which racks and
tortures the limbs.
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
277 Moby Thesaurus words for "torment":
      abuse, afflict, affliction, aggravate, aggrieve, agonize,
      agonizingness, agony, ail, anguish, annoy, annoyance, annoyer,
      atrocious pain, badger, badgerer, bait, bane, be at, be the matter,
      bedevil, befoul, beset, bewitch, bite, blight, bloody, bother,
      break down, bring to tears, bristle, brown off, bug, bugbear,
      bully, bullyrag, burden, burn, burn up, calamity, chafe, chevy,
      chivy, claw, clawing, complicate matters, concern, condemn,
      confinement, convulse, corrupt, cruciation, crucifixion, crucify,
      crush, crushing burden, curse, cut, cut up, damage, death, defile,
      deprave, desolate, desolateness, desolation, despoil, destroy,
      destruction, devil, disadvantage, discommode, discompose, disease,
      dismemberment, disserve, distemper, distress, disturb,
      do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, dog, doom,
      draw tears, embitter, envenom, estrapade, evil, exasperate,
      excruciate, excruciatingness, excruciation, exercise, fash, fester,
      fret, fretting, gall, galleys, get, get into trouble, give pain,
      gnaw, grate, grievance, grieve, grind, gripe, harass, harasser,
      harassment, hard labor, harm, harrier, harrow, harry, haunt,
      heartbreak, heartsickness, heckle, heckler, hector, hell,
      hell upon earth, hex, holocaust, horror, hound, hunt, hurt, impair,
      impale, impalement, imprisonment, incarceration, inconvenience,
      infect, inflame, inflict pain, infliction, injure, inundate, irk,
      irritate, irritation, jailing, jinx, keelhauling, kill by inches,
      lacerate, laceration, lancinate, lancination, macerate, maltreat,
      martyr, martyrdom, martyrization, martyrize, menace, miff, misery,
      mistreat, molest, nag, needle, needling, nemesis, nettle,
      nightmare, nip, nudnik, nudzh, nuisance, open wound, oppress,
      ordeal, outrage, overwhelm, pain, painfulness, passion, peeve,
      penal servitude, perplex, persecute, persecution, persecutor,
      perturb, pest, pester, pesterer, pestilence, pick on, picketing,
      pierce, pinch, pique, plague, plaguer, play havoc with,
      play hob with, pluck the beard, poison, pollute, pother, prejudice,
      prick, prolong the agony, prostrate, provoke, punish, purgatory,
      pursue, put out, put to it, put to torture, puzzle, rack,
      railriding, rankle, rasp, ride, rile, rip, rock pile, roil, rub,
      ruffle, running sore, sadist, savage, scarify, scathe, scourge,
      smite, sorrow, stab, sting, strappado, suffering, taint,
      tar-and-feathering, tease, teaser, the gantlet, thorn, threaten,
      tormentingness, tormentor, torture, torturousness, trouble, try,
      try the patience, tweak, tweak the nose, twist, vex, vexation,
      victimize, violate, visitation, woe, worriedness,
      worries and cares, worriment, worry, worrying, wound,
      wreak havoc on, wretchedness, wring, wrong

    

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