1
as in painful
hard to accept or bear especially emotionally
relatives had to make the torturous decision to disconnect the patient's life-support system
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2
as in wrenching
intensely or unbearably painful
the post-infection treatment for rabies was as notoriously torturous as the disease itself
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Recent Examples of torturous
The verified account, @realanndowd (not to be confused with Bald Ann Dowd), made its first post on March 18 — finally ending the torturous 5,642-day dry spell of there being no Ann Dowd on the app.
—
Tom Smyth, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026
Julia’s psychosis starts to shatter, overcome by cardboard shipping boxes and torturous insomnia.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 15 Mar. 2026
But those torturous years groomed an expert technician.
—Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
The point is that in a pinch, Apple’s low-cost MacBook can handle its share of work without slowing to a crawl or feeling torturous to deal with.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for torturous
Tom Smyth, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026
Julia’s psychosis starts to shatter, overcome by cardboard shipping boxes and torturous insomnia.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 15 Mar. 2026
But those torturous years groomed an expert technician.
—Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
The point is that in a pinch, Apple’s low-cost MacBook can handle its share of work without slowing to a crawl or feeling torturous to deal with.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for torturous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for torturous
Adjective
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Think about caring for an ill mate, losing income because of having to give up your job, having difficulty paying your bills and suffering from painful arthritis while serving as the unpaid caregiver.—
Helen Dennis,
Daily News,
19 Apr. 2026
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Jan Garrod said the cost of farming and trucking with the skyrocketing cost of diesel is almost too painful to think about.—
Laura Ness,
Mercury News,
19 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Another wrenching question, of course, is whether at least the younger Perez siblings would want or need to go with Olga to Guatemala if she were deported.—
Tim Padgett,
Sun Sentinel,
27 Mar. 2026
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These four novels create a convincing, wrenching, kaleidoscopic picture of the range and repetitions of the most fatal kind of love; the sort of love that allows nothing else to grow around it, that eradicates all dignity; a love which, in order to be completed, must be told.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Even in the harshest descriptions of the violence and almost unbelievably cruel twists of fate that Yarris endured (the DNA testing keeps getting accidentally mucked up), Brody lends him a vital indomitable spark.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
16 Apr. 2026
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When the camera's weren't rolling, McCracken says, Couric gave some harsh advice.—
Charles Trepany,
USA Today,
16 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Democrats, who have run the state for years, are publicly agonizing over the possibility they may be shut out of the general election in November.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
13 Apr. 2026
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Marketing executive Mathew Evins lived with chronic back pain for eight agonizing years.—
Susan Spencer,
CBS News,
12 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Dahl’s books are fanciful and imaginative, but also dark, cynical, and mean (and, unfortunately, often reflected his real-life ugliness), spinning stories in which gruesome and unpleasant fates befell rotten kids, and adults were frequently selfish, cruel, and not to be trusted.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
10 Apr. 2026
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Violating that trust is both cruel and unlawful.—
DeJanay Booth-Singleton,
CBS News,
10 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Some were in excruciating pain.—
Neal Riley,
CBS News,
21 Apr. 2026
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Biff shouts at him at the show’s excruciating climax) sways between light and dark, between the road and the deadly shoulder, advancing through his last hours on earth as if through the stations of the cross.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The area that would bear the president’s name has been subject to some of the most intense fighting of the modern age, with tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed in the Donbas over the past few years.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
22 Apr. 2026
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What keeps it from feeling too intense or drying for combination skin is the cushion of tea tree leaf water, which helps calm inflammation.—
Christa Joanna Lee,
Allure,
22 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Torturous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/torturous. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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