torturing

English

Noun

torturing (countable and uncountable, plural torturings)

  1. An act of torture
    • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 200:
      ... sae little about the elect that are tried wi' hornings, chasings, catchings, imprisonments, torturings, banishments, headings, hangings, dismemberings, and quarterings quick...
    • 1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy:
      Terrible shall the vengeance of the Tisroc be: even now. But kill me, and the burnings and torturings in these northern lands shall become a tale to frighten the world a thousand years hence.
    • 2009, Barbara Ehrenreich, “My unwitting role in acts of torture”, in The Guardian‎:
      No, I'm too busy seething over another irony: whenever I've complained about my country's torturings, renderings, detentions, etc, there's always been some smug bastard ready to respond that these measures are what guarantee smart-alecky writers like myself our freedom of speech.

Verb

torturing

  1. present participle and gerund of torture
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