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Torment vs Mortify - What's the difference?

torment | mortify | Related terms |

Torment is a related term of mortify.


In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between torment and mortify

is that torment is (obsolete) a catapult or other kind of war-engine while mortify is (obsolete) to affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.

As verbs the difference between torment and mortify

is that torment is to cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture ) while mortify is (obsolete|transitive) to kill.

As a noun torment

is (obsolete) a catapult or other kind of war-engine.

torment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A catapult or other kind of war-engine.
  • Torture, originally as inflicted by an instrument of torture.
  • Any extreme pain, anguish or misery, either physical or mental.
    • He was bitter from the torments of the divorce system.
  • * Bible, Matthew iv. 24
    • They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments .

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * tormentous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture. )
    • The child tormented the flies by pulling their wings off.
  • * 2013 , Phil McNulty, " Man City 4-1 Man Utd", BBC Sport , 22 September 2013:
    • Moyes, who never won a derby at Liverpool in 11 years as Everton manager, did not find the Etihad any more forgiving as City picked United apart in midfield, where Toure looked in a different class to United's £27.5m new boy Marouane Fellaini, and in defence as Aguero tormented Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

    Derived terms

    * tormentor

    mortify

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (obsolete) To kill.
  • (obsolete) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.
  • * Hakewill
    • He mortified pearls in vinegar.
  • (obsolete) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.
  • *, II.3:
  • *:Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie his legs.
  • To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.
    • Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
  • * Harte
    • With fasting mortified , worn out with tears.
  • * Prior
    • Mortify thy learned lust.
  • * Bible, Col. iii. 5
    • Mortify , therefore, your members which are upon the earth.
  • (usually, used passively) To embarrass, to humiliate.
    • I was so mortified I could have died right there, instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}
  • (obsolete) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.
  • * Evelyn
    • the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations
  • * Addison
    • How often is the ambitious man mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought!
  • (Scotland, legal, historical) To grant in mortmain
  • * 1876 James Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland , Part II, Chapter 14, p.453 ( PDF 2.7 MB):
    • the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary

    Related terms

    * (l)