▪ I. torˈmenting, vbl. n.
[f. torment v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb torment; torturing, vexing; an instance of this.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 12/389 His soule wende to þe Joye of heouene After is tormentingue. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xiii. 8 Tormentingus and sorewes thei shul holde. 1535 Coverdale Wisd. ii. 19 Let vs examen him with despitefull rebuke and tormentinge, that we maye knowe his dignite & proue his pacience. 1633 P. Fletcher Elisa ii. iv, So sat she, as when speechlesse griefs tormenting Locks up the heart. 1884 Athenæum 6 Dec. 732/2 [They] suffer from no fancied ills and self-conscious tormentings. |
▪ II. torˈmenting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That torments, in various senses of the verb.
| 1575 [implied in tormentingly]. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. iii. 226 While some tormenting Dreame Affrights thee. 1637 Prynne Passages Star Chamb. in Harl. Misc. (1809) IV. 234 Let me be put to the tormentingest death they can devise. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 505 Sight hateful, sight tormenting! 1780 Mirror No. 74 ¶9 Haunted with the most tormenting thoughts. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. viii. 87 The eruption, a tormenting and anomalous symptom. |
Hence torˈmentingly adv.; torˈmentingness.
| 1575 Gascoigne Dan Barthol. of Bathe Wks. 1907 I. 105 He bounst and bet his head tormentingly. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Tormentingness, tormenting Quality or Faculty. 1857 Chamb. Jrnl. VII. 397 Visits were tormentingly delayed. |