Dictionary

torturelike en · ADJ

Etymology

From torture + -like.

Meanings

1. Characteristic of torture; torturous.
   • Her Grace […] sent out after them 300 armed Men, with orders not to return without their Bodies, dead or alive; intending that if they should be brought to her in the latter condition to have them put to Death in some torturelike manner, after a few years Confinement. 1789, Jane Austen, “Henry and Eliza”, in Juvenilia:
   • Every one of these features is true of normal shipboard life, in which the absolute tyranny of the captain, the tradition of beatings and torturelike punishments, as well as the separation of men from their families is the norm. 1991, Philip Fisher, The New American Studies, page 98:
   • In this way, loopholes exist that allow for torturelike methods to be used. 2017, Elizabeth Grimm Arsenault, How the Gloves Came Off, page 154:

Forms