Also 6–7 -or. [f. TORTURE v. + -ER1.] One who or that which inflicts or causes torture; a tormentor; spec. one who executes judicial torture.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 198. I play the Torturer, by small and small To lengthen out the worst, that must be spoken.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 52 b/2. Two torturors will deprive a man of life … the torturer of greefe and sorrowe is the most cruellest.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 215. Thou King, send out For Torturors ingenious.
1780. Beckford, Italy (1834), I. 69. That respectable corps, the torturers of butterflies.
1805. Southey, Madoc in Azt., II. 114. Thou know’st how manfully These tribes … in bonds Defy their torturers.
1830. Scott, Ayrshire Trag., III. i. A torturer of phrases into sonnets.
