different between torment vs heckle

English

Etymology

From Middle English torment, from Old French torment, from Latin tormentum (“something operated by twisting”), from torquere (“to twist”).

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /?t??(?)m?nt/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /t??(?)?m?nt/

Noun

torment (countable and uncountable, plural torments)

1. (obsolete) A catapult or other kind of war-engine.
2. Torture, originally as inflicted by an instrument of torture.
3. Any extreme pain, anguish or misery, either physical or mental.

   He was bitter from the torments of the divorce.

   • They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:pain

Derived terms

• tormentous

Translations

Verb

torment (third-person singular simple present torments, present participle tormenting, simple past and past participle tormented)

1. (transitive) 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

Translations

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French torment, from Latin tormentum.

Noun

torment (plural torments)

1. torment (suffering, pain)

Descendants

• English: torment

Middle French

Alternative forms

• tourment

Etymology

From Old French torment, from Latin tormentum.

Noun

torment m (plural torments)

1. torment; suffering; anguish

Old French

Alternative forms

• turment

Etymology

From Latin tormentum.

Noun

torment m (oblique plural tormenz or tormentz, nominative singular tormenz or tormentz, nominative plural torment)

1. torture
2. (figuratively, by extension) suffering; torment

Descendants

• Middle English: torment (borrowing)
  • English: torment
• Middle French: torment, tourment
  • French: tourment

References

• “tourment” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old Occitan

Etymology

From Latin tormentum.

Noun

torment m (nominative singular torments)

1. suffering; torment

Descendants

• Catalan: turment
• Occitan: torment

English

Etymology

Transferred usage of Middle English hekelen (“to comb flax or hemp with a heckle”), from hekele (“a comb for flax or hemp”), from Middle Dutch hekelen (“to prickle, irritate”), from Proto-Germanic *hakil?n?. Related to hackle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?k?l/
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Verb

heckle (third-person singular simple present heckles, present participle heckling, simple past and past participle heckled)

1. (transitive) To question harshly in an attempt to find or reveal weaknesses. [from later 18th c.]
2. (transitive) To insult, tease, make fun of or badger.

   Promise that you won't heckle me after my performance.

3. (textiles) To prepare flax for spinning using special combs called hackles

Synonyms

(prepare flax for spinning): hackle

Related terms

• heckler
• heckling

Translations

Noun

heckle (plural heckles)

1. Alternative form of hackle (“tool for separating flax”)
2. The long shining feathers on a cock's neck.
3. A feather ornament in the full-dress bonnets of Highland regiments.

Anagrams

• Heckel