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^[1]:

     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