torment
Americanverb (used with object)
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to afflict with great bodily or mental suffering; pain.
to be tormented with violent headaches.
- Antonyms:
- please
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to worry or annoy excessively.
to torment one with questions.
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to throw into commotion; stir up; disturb.
noun
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a state of great bodily or mental suffering; agony; misery.
-
something that causes great bodily or mental pain or suffering.
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a source of much trouble, worry, or annoyance.
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an instrument of torture, as the rack or the thumbscrew.
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the infliction of torture by means of such an instrument or the torture so inflicted.
verb
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to afflict with great pain, suffering, or anguish; torture
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to tease or pester in an annoying way
stop tormenting the dog
noun
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physical or mental pain
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a source of pain, worry, annoyance, etc
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archaic an instrument of torture
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archaic the infliction of torture
Related Words
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.
Other Word Forms
- tormented adjective
- tormentedly adverb
- tormenting adjective
- tormentingly adverb
- tormentingness noun
- untormented adjective
- untormenting adjective
- untormentingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of torment
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 )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Such is the nature of their American torment.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 2, 2026
But the mother does not know what happened to him and describes the lack of answers as "mental torment".
From BBC • Feb. 20, 2026
The general thrust of the changes were to de-melodramatize Salieri’s action and to focus more attention on his guilt and metaphysical torment.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2026
Tartakovsky conveys all of Spear’s torment, loneliness and the magnitude of his love with zero dialogue, only a wide-eyed stare into the distance as he lumbers along, pulled by the memory of an unfinished life.
From Salon • Feb. 1, 2026
The flies began to torment them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.