How to Use torture in a Sentence

torture

1 of 2 noun
  • Waiting is just torture for me.
  • Listening to him can be torture.
  • Some showed signs of torture or rape.
    — Lorne Cook, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2026
  • This type of torture is a means to an end.
    — Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
  • And still, the torture pressed on.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 4 Sep. 2025
  • What kind of torture and drugs destroys one’s id?
    — Literary Hub, 22 June 2026
  • This will be a great day to get the hostages away from their bondage and their torture.
    — Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill, 12 Oct. 2025
  • High school and middle school were a torture for my sister.
    — Emeline Atwood, PEOPLE, 31 May 2026
  • All the tools of torture and repression are still there to be used.
    — Amer Matar, The Dial, 26 May 2026
  • His body was found with 44 bullet wounds and signs of torture.
    — Andy Rose, CNN, 11 Oct. 2023
  • This brutal torture lasted for more than an hour.
    — Christina Dugan Ramirez, FOXNews.com, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The torture and the beatings and the -- the attempts to kill him and all of that.
    — Troy Roberts, CBS News, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Its torture room remains intact, though no longer used.
    — Christine Ro, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Some had their hands tied behind their backs, and others showed signs of torture or rape.
    — Lorne Cook, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2026
  • The killing involved a lengthy beating and torture.
    — Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Her daughter was not involved in the torture, but she had been sent the photos.
    — Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 19 Dec. 2025
  • One document that has been shared describes the torture of a small child by a group of men.
    — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2026
  • His efforts to stop it brings a bunch of trouble (and a little torture).
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 4 Mar. 2026
  • Horrific wounds across the body detailed a map of torture.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The violence, the torture, the killings.
    — Rabih Alameddine september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The torture took place on an elevator that had a habit of getting stuck.
    — James Verini, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Who knew duking it out at the top of the league could be such unadulterated torture?
    — Amy Lawrence, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026
  • One of his tortures is forcing his prisoners to watch it on repeat.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026
  • If ballet was all self-effacing torture, there would be no need to wrestle with it.
    — Madison Mainwaring, The New Republic, 19 Apr. 2023
  • The next few days were torture, with the couple waiting to see if the embryo would survive.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 22 Feb. 2026
  • Listening to people talk about me was torture.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Here the threat would seem to be that of a trial based in part on evidence obtained through torture.
    — WSJ, 12 Feb. 2023
  • Watching these two actors face off is great fun — until the torture begins.
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 1 Sep. 2025
  • The ride from Aqueduct to Bethpage was pure torture.
    — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 16 June 2026
  • By and large, people with acute misophonia want to flee the source of their torture, not attack it.
    — Sloane Crosley, New Yorker, 8 June 2026

torture

2 of 2 verb
  • Don't torture yourself over the mistake.
  • The report revealed that prisoners had been repeatedly tortured.
  • This is my brain trying to torture me.
    — Karen Valby, Vanity Fair, 16 June 2026
  • This time the Court should defend the law rather than torture it.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Sep. 2025
  • This is the cost of having been tortured in public.
    — Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA Today, 4 Oct. 2025
  • When being tortured, name names.
    — Keith McNally, Vanity Fair, 20 Jan. 2026
  • One of them was a person whose eight-month-old baby was tortured in front of his eyes.
    — Cora Engelbrecht, New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2026
  • For more than three weeks, Halimi was held hostage and tortured.
    — Rachel Wolf, FOXNews.com, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Many of the men had been beaten, while women were raped and children were tortured.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Many of the men had been beaten, while women were raped and children were tortured.
    — Simon Hughes, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Armand tortured and planned to drain Daniel, but Louis stepped in to save him.
    — Tiffany Kelly, Entertainment Weekly, 3 June 2026
  • Birkin adored the baby but was tortured by her husband’s coldness.
    — Anahid Nersessian, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Other leaders were tortured, and a couple sent to prison.
    — Literary Hub, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Her husband says she has been tortured after her arrest.
    — Somayeh Malekian, ABC News, 10 Feb. 2026
  • In response, the regime killed dozens, and arrested and tortured many more.
    — Azadeh Moaveni, New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2026
  • Once inside, Corll would torture, rape and kill them.
    — Emily Blackwood, People.com, 17 Aug. 2025
  • The cartel is alleged to have tortured or killed those who tried to resist or escape.
    — CBS News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • You’d get tortured or killed for just expressing yourself.
    — Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone, 27 May 2026
  • All of this makes the job of being an informed citizen just tortured.
    — Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2026
  • While Keith stayed there for 484 days, we were tortured, we were starved.
    — Jennifer Griffin, FOXNews.com, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Ruis was placed in a cell with Yates and ultimately tortured and killed him.
    — Kelly Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Sep. 2025
  • He’s not tortured in any way — the only person that’s holding him back is himself.
    — Leigh Nordstrom, Footwear News, 5 Feb. 2026
  • At one point, Lawrence is captured by the Turks at Daraa and is tortured.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Within hours, Ruis had beaten and tortured Yates to death.
    — Kelly Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Mar. 2026
  • Agatha, the legendary martyr, tortured for saying no.
    — Rebecca Morgan Frank september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
  • In many of the paintings, one character is tortured by others.
    — Adam Moss, Vulture, 12 Dec. 2025
  • It's been nearly two decades since the gang tortured and killed their way through Miami.
    — Troy Roberts, CBS News, 8 Apr. 2026
  • White men kidnapped, tortured, shot, and dumped him in a river for whistling at a white shopkeeper.
    — Debbie Elliott, NPR, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Masters were meant to feed and clothe them, not to torture them, and not to sell a husband, wife and small children apart.
    — ABC News, 28 May 2026
  • Bundy tortured, raped and killed dozens of young women in more than half a dozen states in the 1970s.
    — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 1 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'torture.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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