waterboarding

noun

wa·​ter·​board·​ing ˈwȯ-tər-ˌbȯr-diŋ 

ˈwä-

: an interrogation technique usually regarded as a form of torture in which water is forced into a detainee's mouth and nose so as to induce the sensation of drowning

Examples of waterboarding in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cheney was an architect of the Bush administration’s war on terror and its secret detention program, defending the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 4 Nov. 2025

His father was a dockworker, his mother a waitress whose cooking Welsh once compared to waterboarding. —Sam Davies, Rolling Stone, 30 July 2025

The condition causes fluid to fill in the lungs, creating a sense of drowning that some experts have likened to chemical waterboarding. —Kelly Puente, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025

It has also been revealed that waterboarding was done by a three-person interrogation team led by Bruce Jessen and James E. Mitchell, two former contract psychologists for the agency. —Carol Rosenberg, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2004, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for waterboarding

• unrewarding
• according
• affording
• awarding
• keyboarding
• recording
• rewarding
• skateboarding
• snowboarding
• boarding
• cording
• fording