Also 5–9 -er. [ME. and AF. tormentour = OF. tor-, tourmenteur, earlier -teour, -teor (c. 1150 in Godef.):—L. type *tormentātōr-em, agent-n. from tormentāre to TORMENT.] One who or that which torments.
1. An officer who inflicts torture or cruelty; an official torturer; an executioner. Also transf.
c. 1290. St. Edmund, 43, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 298. His luþere tormentores þat beoten him so sore.
a. 1350. St. Andrew, 171, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 6. Þe turmentours … Toke his bodi with bitter brayde, Vnto þe cros þai gun it bend.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xviii. 34. His lord wroth, tok hym to tourmenturs [1388 turmentouris; 1582 (Rhem.) tormenters; 1611 tormentors], til that he paiede al the dette.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 185 b/2. The tormentour as he had smyten of his heed both his eyen sterte out of his heed.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1883), 79. He that playeth the sowdayne is percase a sowter. Yet if one should … calle him by his owne name…, one of his tormentors might hap to breake his [= one’s] head.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), 25. Such, who … are holden for infamous, as Sergeants, Hangmen, Tormentours.
1895. Rider Haggard, Heart of World, xxv. That your souls be handed over to the tormentors of the under-world.
2. One who or that which persistently inflicts intense pain, suffering, vexation, or annoyance.
In quot. 1642 humorously: = TEASER1 2.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 199. They dissent both in the tormentours and in the tormentes of the soules.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 136. These words heereafter, thy tormentors bee.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Pref., Wks. 1851, III. 274. Certainly this tormentor of Semicolons is as good at dismembring and slitting sentences.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 447, ¶ 10. They will naturally become their own Tormentors.
1751. Affecting Narr. of Wager, 84. The Prospect of that horridest Tormenter, Famine, [was] continually before our Eyes.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 419. A host of tormentors, in the shape of flies,… persecuting the poor animal.
1897. ‘Ouida,’ Massarenes, viii. The person whose instructress and tormentor she was.
3. An instrument that torments in some way.
† a. Some device for catching fleas, Obs. b. pl. A long-handled fork used for taking the meat from the coppers on board ship; also, Sc. ‘an implement on which to toast bannocks, etc.’ (E.D.D.); in quot. 1866 (sing.), a piercing implement carried by excise officers. c. A wheel-harrow of which each tine is a small share or hoe, for breaking up stiff soil. d. pl. A slang name for riding-spurs. e. Theater. (See quots.) f. A device used to annoy at pleasure-fairs: cf. TICKLER 2 b. SCRATCH-BACK 2. colloq.
a. 1609. Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, Cries of Rome, Wks. 1874, V. 254. Buy a very fine Mouse-trap, or a tormentor for your Fleaes.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. iv. Buy a Mouse-trap, a Mouse-trap, or a Tormentor for a Flea.
a. 1619. Fletcher, Bonduca, II. iii. Daughter. Are they not our Tormentors? Car. Tormentors? flea-traps!
1622. J. Taylor (Water P.), Trav. Twelve-pence (1635), B vij b. Of Mowse Traps, and tormentors to kill Fleas.
b. 1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 84. He [a sea-cook] is never without a Pair of Tormentors in his Hand.
1823. Galt, Gilhaize, I. ii. 22. Toasting an oaten bannock on a pair of tormentors.
1866. Fitzpatrick, Sham Sqr., 18. Sham made a violent pass at Peck with his tormentor.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 186–7. The cook uncovered his coppers, plunged his tormentors therein, and produced such a succession of ugly corpses of fowls as I had never seen before.
c. 1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 121. Scarifiers, scufflers, shims, and broad-shares of various constructions,… called under the general name of tormentors.
1882. Jago, Cornw. Gloss., Tormentor, an agricultural implement for breaking up the clods of a ploughed field.
d. 1875. Whyte-Melville, Riding Recoll., iv. (1879), 59. Fordham … wholly repudiates ‘the tormentors,’ arguing that they only make a horse shorten his stride, and ‘shut up.’
e. 1886. Stage Gossip, 70. The ‘tormentor’ is the name for a door, placed in the R. I. E. and L. I. E., and which prevents anybody from obtaining a view of the performance from either of the entrances named, and also prevents the actor being seen by the ‘house’—these doors are annoying at times.
1893. N. York Herald, 25 Dec., 26/2 (Funk). The first wing has been known to the stage as ‘tormentor’ wing from time whereof memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 12 Jan., 9/3. A strip of white bunting is waved by a master of the ceremonies from a wooden hutch in the ‘tormentor’ wing.
f. 1891. in Cent. Dict.
1903. Farmer & Henley, Slang Dict., Tormentor … 3 (common), a back-scratcher.
