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Chinese water torture

noun

Definition of Chinese water torture

:a form of torture in which a person is restrained and subjected to repetitive drips of water on the forehead
  • I heard beeping for two days … It was driving me crazy like Chinese water torture.
  • —Carol Kallberg, Daily Record (Wooster, Ohio),  14 Oct. 2012
—often used figuratively
  • Better to execute layoffs quickly and decisively, experts say … The alternate—the drip-drip-drip of repeated downsizings—is a Chinese water torture that kills morale and productivity.
  • —Daniel McGinn,  Newsweek,  25 June 2001

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First Known Use of chinese water torture

1892

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