torment

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Severe physical or mental suffering.

   He lived in torment for years after the accident.

2. 2
   verb

   To cause someone great and continual suffering.

   Guilt tormented her long after she had told the lie.

3. 3
   verb

   To deliberately annoy or treat someone cruelly.

   The older boys tormented him every day at school.

From Middle English torment, from Old French torment, from Latin tormentum (“something operated by twisting”), from torquere (“to twist”).

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