How to Use torturous in a Sentence

torturous

adjective
  • But sad books need not be torturous books.
    — Literary Hub, 15 Apr. 2026
  • For all but the elite of the elite, the process is torturous.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Feb. 2021
  • Why bother with torturous stilettos when a comfy flat will do the trick?
    — Christian Allaire, Vogue, 29 Mar. 2021
  • The state has followed a torturous legal path to get Phoenix built.
    — Joseph N. Distefano, Philly.com, 17 May 2017
  • But maybe that’s even more torturous than her child named Bless who never even knew that country.
    — A Dialogue, Literary Hub, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Good luck—these tiny, torturous bugs seem to be hard to dispose of, but there is a way to lure them in and disable them.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 16 June 2026
  • Waiting for news was torturous.
    — Grace White, Essence, 29 Oct. 2025
  • This is true for all the models and most of the poses, some of which are torturous and might need to be held off and on for hours.
    — Jeff MacGregor, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 May 2022
  • But to someone with a certain type of misophonia, these same sounds can be torturous.
    — Christiane Gelitz, Scientific American, 16 Aug. 2021
  • For me, the ordeal of leaning over a sink with a towel around my neck while my wife is yelling at me — that was torturous.
    — Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2024
  • Getting rid of the death penalty also would bring a close to these torturous years of appeals for so many of us.
    — Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2025
  • For non-Muslims, the idea of a fasting for a month while working around food might seem torturous.
    — Sarah Parvinistaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2022
  • The death of her mother during a torturous childbirth opened the series.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2022
  • The last, most torturous, step is to cool the pie for at least 30 minutes before digging in.
    — Ann Taylor Pittman, Southern Living, 30 July 2023
  • Assailants used a chain and a Taser during the torturous assault.
    — Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post, 19 Nov. 2019
  • The mortgage process was torturous for potential clients and drove people away.
    — Kimberly Janson, Forbes, 6 May 2021
  • The Bruins keep finding new, torturous ways to lose hockey games.
    — Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 8 Feb. 2025
  • No sense of some torturous inner dialogue pulling him from the foolishness of this game show.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2024
  • How to make your hair look longer Trying to grow your hair fast can feel torturous, with no one walking the same path to longer lengths.
    — Ana Morales, Vogue, 23 July 2025
  • But those torturous years groomed an expert technician.
    — Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
  • That account of women in journalism was torturous to write.
    — Literary Hub, 1 June 2026
  • As part of her job, Angèle needs to daub makeup on the models’ feet, blistered from the torturous heels they’re forced to wear.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 26 June 2026
  • The game had dribbled away and cricket has a way of extending the agony of the vanquished in torturous slow motion.
    — Tim Ellis, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Neither the Lakers nor Dodgers were part of the Rams’ torturous six-year climb to the top.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 2022
  • The wait through this roughly 35-mph turn is torturous; neither car feels in its element going this slow.
    — K.c. Colwell, Car and Driver, 2 Sep. 2020
  • The ensuing months were torturous.
    — Rob Picheta, CNN Money, 7 Feb. 2026
  • The story has been trapped in the torturous hell that is Waterford Manor for over 20 hours.
    — Nicole Pomarico, refinery29.com, 8 June 2019
  • Even more torturous than being Bill’s wife right now is, in some ways, being his First Lady.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 2 Nov. 2021
  • Hiking through the deep snow drifts above 26,000 feet is torturous and time consuming.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside, 8 Oct. 2025
  • The last of the Angola 3 has written a memoir about his torturous ordeal.
    — Emily Lane, nola.com, 6 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'torturous.' 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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