Library / English Dictionary

TORMENT

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of harassing someone

Synonyms:

badgering; bedevilment; torment; worrying

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

harassment; molestation (the act of tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism)

Derivation:

torment (treat cruelly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A severe affliction

Synonyms:

curse; torment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

affliction (a cause of great suffering and distress)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain

Example:

the torments of the damned

Synonyms:

agony; torment; torture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

hurt; suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)

Derivation:

torment (torment emotionally or mentally)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Extreme mental distress

Synonyms:

anguish; torment; torture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

distress; hurt; suffering (psychological suffering)

Derivation:

torment (torment emotionally or mentally)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A feeling of intense annoyance caused by being tormented

Example:

so great was his harassment that he wanted to destroy his tormentors

Synonyms:

harassment; torment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

annoyance; chafe; vexation (anger produced by some annoying irritation)

Derivation:

torment (treat cruelly)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Unbearable physical pain

Synonyms:

torment; torture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("torment" is a kind of...):

hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

Derivation:

torment (subject to torture)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Subject to torture

Example:

The sinners will be tormented in Hell, according to the Bible

Synonyms:

excruciate; torment; torture

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "torment" is one way to...):

injure; wound (cause injuries or bodily harm to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "torment"):

rack (torture on the rack)

martyr; martyrise; martyrize (torture and torment like a martyr)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to torment the prisoners

Derivation:

torment (unbearable physical pain)

tormenter (someone who torments)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Torment emotionally or mentally

Synonyms:

excruciate; rack; torment; torture

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "torment" is one way to...):

anguish; hurt; pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will torment him

Derivation:

torment (intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain)

torment (extreme mental distress)

tormenter; tormentor (someone who torments)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Treat cruelly

Example:

The children tormented the stuttering teacher

Synonyms:

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "torment" is one way to...):

beset; chevvy; chevy; chivvy; chivy; harass; harry; hassle; molest; plague; provoke (annoy continually or chronically)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "torment"):

madden (drive up the wall; go on someone's nerves)

hamstring (make ineffective or powerless)

badger; beleaguer; bug; pester; tease (annoy persistently)

oppress; persecute (cause to suffer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

torment (the act of harassing someone)

torment (a feeling of intense annoyance caused by being tormented)

tormenter; tormentor (someone who torments)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I asked of God, at once in anguish and humility, if I had not been long enough desolate, afflicted, tormented; and might not soon taste bliss and peace once more.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had never been able to attach even those she loved best; and since Mrs. Rushworth's elopement, her temper had been in a state of such irritation as to make her everywhere tormenting.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Jealousy of Mr Elliot had been the retarding weight, the doubt, the torment.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Those were the words; in them lay the tormenting ideas which Emma could not get rid of, and which constituted the real misery of the business to her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I will not torment myself any longer by remaining among friends whose society it is impossible for me now to enjoy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And there, in the middle of it, was the man himself—his face twisted like a lost soul in torment, and his great brindled beard stuck upward in his agony.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They will ask what you do here, but give no answer; and let them do what they will—beat, whip, pinch, prick, or torment you—bear all; only speak not a word, and at twelve o’clock they must go away.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

For two days and nights he neither ate nor drank, and during those two days and nights of torment, he accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever first fell foul of him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It is useless, and the time awfully fails me, to prolong this description; no one has ever suffered such torments, let that suffice; and yet even to these, habit brought—no, not alleviation—but a certain callousness of soul, a certain acquiescence of despair; and my punishment might have gone on for years, but for the last calamity which has now fallen, and which has finally severed me from my own face and nature.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I hope this pleases you (turning her back on him); I hope your eyes are not tormented now.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)