Torture (tôrt&uuptack_;r; 135), n. [F., fr. L. tortura, fr. torquere, tortum, to twist, rack, torture; probably akin to Gr. trepein to turn, G. drechseln to turn on a lathe, and perhaps to E. queer. Cf. Contort, Distort, Extort, Retort, Tart, n., Torch, Torment, Tortion, Tort, Trope.] 1. Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind. Shak.
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Ghastly spasm or racking torture. Milton.
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2. 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.
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3. The act or process of torturing.
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Torture, which had always been deciared illegal, and which had recently been declared illegal even by the servile judges of that age, was inflicted for the last time in England in the month of May, 1640. Macaulay.
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