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Tribulation vs Torment - What's the difference?

tribulation | torment |

As a proper noun tribulation

is (christianity) a relatively short period of time before the second coming where believers will experience worldwide persecution and be purified and strengthened by it.

As a noun torment is

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

As a verb torment is

to cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture ).

tribulation

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any adversity; a trying period or event.
  • * 1535 , , Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation , ch. 6:
    • For the blessed apostle himself in his sore tribulation', praying thrice unto God to take it away from him, was answered again by God (in a manner) that he was but a fool in asking that request, but that the help of God's grace in that '''tribulation''' to strengthen him was far better for him than to take that ' tribulation from him.
  • * 1847 , , Omoo , ch. 11:
    • Baltimore's tribulations were indeed sore; there was no peace for him day nor night.
  • * 1944 June 27, , Speech in Chicago, Illinois to the 23rd Republican National Convention:
    • It is youth who must inherit the tribulation , the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
  • * 2009 Sept. 24, , " Kristina'': A New Musical from the ABBA Guys," ''New York Times (retrieved 12 March 2014):
    • Essentially stoic, passive characters, Kristina and the others triumph by surviving — by outliving their plagues and tribulations .

    External links

    * *

    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