| 释义 |
tormentor|tɔːˈmɛntə(r)|
Also 5–9 -er.
[ME. and AF. tormentour = OF. tor-, tourmenteur, earlier -teour, -teor (c 1150 in Godef.):—L. type *tormentātōr-em, agent-n. from tormentāre to torment.]
One who or that which torments.
1. An officer who inflicts torture or cruelty; an official torturer; an executioner. Also transf.
c1290St. Edmund 43 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 298 His luþere tormentores þat beoten him so sore. a1350St. Andrew 171 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 6 Þe turmentours..Toke his bodi with bitter brayde, Vnto þe cros þai gun it bend. 1382Wyclif Matt. xviii. 34 His lord wroth, tok hym to tourmenturs [1388 turmentouris; 1582 (Rhem.) tormenters; 1611 tormentors], til that he paiede al the dette. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 185 b/2 The tormentour as he had smyten of his heed both his eyen sterte out of his heed. 1513More Rich. III (1883) 79 He that playeth the sowdayne is percase a sowter. Yet if one should..calle him by his owne name.., one of his tormentors might hap to breake his [= one's] head. 1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 25 Such, who..are holden for infamous, as Sergeants, Hangmen, Tormentours. 1895Rider Haggard Hrt. of World xxv, That your souls be handed over to the tormentors of the under-world.
2. One who or that which persistently inflicts intense pain, suffering, vexation, or annoyance.
In quot. 1642 humorously: = teaser1 2.
1553Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 199 They dissent both in the tormentours and in the tormentes of the soules. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 136 These words heereafter, thy tormentors bee. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. Pref., Wks. 1851 III. 274 Certainly this tormentor of Semicolons is as good at dismembring and slitting sentences. 1712Addison Spect. No. 447 ⁋10 They will naturally become their own Tormentors. 1751Affecting Narr. of Wager 84 The Prospect of that horridest Tormenter, Famine, [was] continually before our Eyes. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 419 A host of tormentors, in the shape of flies,..persecuting the poor animal. 1897‘Ouida’ Massarenes viii, The person whose instructress and tormentor she was.
3. An instrument that torments in some way.
†a. Some device for catching fleas. Obs.
b. pl. A long-handled fork used for taking the meat from the coppers on board ship; also, Sc. ‘an implement on which to toast bannocks, etc.’ (E.D.D.); in quot. 1866 (sing.), a piercing implement carried by excise officers.
c. A wheel-harrow of which each tine is a small share or hoe, for breaking up stiff soil.
d. pl. A slang name for riding-spurs.
e. Theatr. (See quots.)
f. A device used to annoy at pleasure-fairs (freq. a device for squirting liquid): cf. tickler 2 b, scratch-back 2. colloq.
a.1609Heywood Rape of Lucrece, Cries of Rome Wks. 1874 V. 254 Buy a very fine Mouse-trap, or a tormentor for your Fleaes. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. iv. a1619Fletcher Bonduca ii. iii, Daughter. Are they not our Tormentors? Car. Tormentors? flea-traps! 1622J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Twelve-pence (1635) B vij b, Of Mowse Traps, and tormentors to kill Fleas.
b.1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 84 He [a sea-cook] is never without a Pair of Tormentors in his Hand. 1823Galt Gilhaize I. ii. 22 Toasting an oaten bannock on a pair of tormentors. 1866Fitzpatrick Sham Sqr. 18 Sham made a violent pass at Peck with his tormentor. 1898F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot 186 The cook uncovered his coppers, plunged his tormentors therein, and produced such a succession of ugly corpses of fowls as I had never seen before.
c.1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 121 Scarifiers, scufflers, shims, and broad-shares of various constructions,..called under the general name of tormentors. 1882Jago Cornw. Gloss., Tormentor, an agricultural implement for breaking up the clods of a ploughed field.
d.1875G. J. Whyte-Melville Riding Recoll. iv. (1879) 59 Fordham..wholly repudiates ‘the tormentors’, arguing that they only make a horse shorten his stride, and ‘shut up’.
e.1886Stage Gossip 70 The ‘tormentor’ is the name for a door, placed in the R.I.E. and L.I.E., and which prevents anybody from obtaining a view of the performance from either of the entrances named, and also prevents the actor being seen by the ‘house’—these doors are annoying at times. 1893N. York Herald 25 Dec. 26/2 (Funk) The first wing has been known to the stage as ‘tormentor’ wing from time whereof memory of man runneth not to the contrary. 1898Westm. Gaz. 12 Jan. 9/3 A strip of white bunting is waved by a master of the ceremonies from a wooden hutch in the ‘tormentor’ wing.
f.1891in Cent. Dict. 1903Farmer & Henley Slang Dict., Tormentor..3 (common), a back-scratcher. 1894A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets 34 The ladies' tormentors are larger, and their contents smell worse than at any other fair. Ibid. 36 Billy bought a ladies' tormentor and began to squirt it at Lizerunt. 1912J. Masefield Widow in Bye St. 19 One's so safe with such a son to con her Through all the noises and through all the press, Boys daredn't squirt tormenters on her dress. |