What's the difference between ordeal and torture?

Ordeal


Definition:

  • (n.) An ancient form of test to determine guilt or innocence, by appealing to a supernatural decision, -- once common in Europe, and still practiced in the East and by savage tribes.
  • (n.) Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.
  • (a.) Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We have much more fighting to do!” Now Cherwell is preparing to publish letters or articles from other students who have been inspired to open up about their own ordeals.
  • (2) Collins later thanked the condemned man for what he said was the respect he showed toward the execution team and for the way he endured the ordeal.
  • (3) Cal Zastrow, also with the group, said that, although he has stood by Davis throughout the ordeal, he wouldn’t support the clerk’s policy to allow deputies to issue licenses without her authorization.
  • (4) They said that the family were sure DNA tests would prove she is their biological relative, but added they had been "traumatised" by the ordeal.
  • (5) Skin deepithelialization is an integral part of many reconstructive procedures, but it can be a tedious and time-consuming ordeal when using conventional techniques.
  • (6) Rose, a Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design fine art graduate, said she is determined that the rules should be changed "as this treatment is becoming more commonplace for Crohn's disease sufferers and I would not want any other woman to have to go through this ordeal".
  • (7) As for Botha, he breathed a sigh of relief that his ordeal was over.
  • (8) Liang's ordeal ended when he grew so sick that he could no longer rise from his bed for the struggle sessions.
  • (9) The exercise was the highlight and halfway point of the Mars500 project, which aims to find out how humans would cope with the psychological ordeal of a real trip to Mars.
  • (10) Sami said all the survivors are likely to need psychological support after their ordeal.
  • (11) If this is not the case then we are keen to speak to victims and learn any lessons we can to improve our investigations.” Allen told the Observer that she had been left “a changed person” after the ordeal, feeling isolated from friends and family.
  • (12) Having concluded one part of their quest for justice, they now look to the British criminal courts to hold those responsible for their ordeal to account and await the judge-led inquiry they have been promised.” Belhaj, who last year led the battle for Tripoli, said: “When my friend Sami al-Saadi was freed from Abu Salim prison on 23 August 2011, he weighed seven stone.
  • (13) Ai emerged from his ordeal in June, far slimmer – having lost almost 10kg, some of which he has regained – and apparently chastened.
  • (14) FNAC not only helped detect early cancers, but its negative findings resulted in sparing patients the ordeal of surgical biopsy for benign conditions.
  • (15) A woman who had acid thrown in her face has spoken of her ordeal, describing the pain like being constantly stabbed in the eyes.
  • (16) He talked about the ordeal of retrieving dead bodies, and was critical of the defence department’s handling of personnel who had experienced trauma.
  • (17) John Kampfner Nick Griffin received the oxygen of publicity he craved, but at the end of a nation?s ordeal democracy emerged intact.
  • (18) Day is seeking compensation for those who survived the alleged ordeal.
  • (19) The spokeswoman said: “The prime minister recognises that the families of those hostages who were murdered have been through a terrible ordeal.
  • (20) The 12-hour ordeal for Stephanie – who did not wish to speak on the record or use her real name for fear of jeopardizing her job prospects – took place after police found one ounce of marijuana in her car.

Torture


Definition:

  • (n.) Extreme pain; anguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind.
  • (n.) Especially, severe pain inflicted judicially, either as punishment for a crime, or for the purpose of extorting a confession from an accused person, as by water or fire, by the boot or thumbkin, or by the rack or wheel.
  • (n.) The act or process of torturing.
  • (v. t.) To put to torture; to pain extremely; to harass; to vex.
  • (v. t.) To punish with torture; to put to the rack; as, to torture an accused person.
  • (v. t.) To wrest from the proper meaning; to distort.
  • (v. t.) To keep on the stretch, as a bow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The denial of justice to victims of British torture, some of which Britain admits, is set to continue.
  • (2) Hayden had argued that the harsher interrogation techniques had provided valuable information and said that the techniques did not amount to torture.
  • (3) The court hearing – in a case of the kind likely to be heard in secret if the government's justice and security bill is passed – was requested by the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve, acting for Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
  • (4) "Consider this, all six or so hours of his Champions League finals would have been torture."
  • (5) Lastly, sexually tortured women manifest greater psychological and sexual dysfunction.
  • (6) The government also faced considerable international political pressure, with the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, calling publicly on the government to "provide full redress to the victims, including fair and adequate compensation", and writing privately to David Cameron, along with two former special rapporteurs, to warn that the government's position was undermining its moral authority across the world.
  • (7) And it means the Foreign Office dealing with those in the Middle East and North Africa who are on the side of democracy and human rights, not sitting down to tea with torturers.
  • (8) In a 2012 study submitted to the UN, the Petersburg-based centre alleged that Roma and migrants were routinely subjected to police torture .
  • (9) His torturous journey for a safer life has led to no life .
  • (10) The day it opened in the US, three senators – senate select committee on intelligence chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain – released a letter of protest to Sony Pictures's CEO, citing their committee's 6,000-page classified report on interrogation tactics and calling on him "to state that the role of torture in the hunt for Osama bin Laden is not based on the facts, but rather part of the film's fictional narrative".
  • (11) But under his government the security forces killed more than 2,000 people, and an estimated 25,000 people were detained without trial and often tortured.
  • (12) Limits are a relief, because they concentrate the drama and free the writer from the torture of choice, as Aristotle knew when he advised playwrights to preserve "the unities" by telling one story in one place over a single day.
  • (13) Sometimes the way the MP [military policeman] holds the head chokes me, and with all the nerves in the nose the tube passing the nose is like torture,” Dhiab said in a legal filing.
  • (14) Diego Garcia guards its secrets even as the truth on CIA torture emerges Read more The long-awaited decision – expected to cause enormous disappointment – follows more than 40 years of campaigning, court cases and calls for the UK to right a wrong committed by Harold Wilson’s Labour government.
  • (15) In his letter Abd El Fattah highlights the arbitrary nature of many of their detentions, the torture to which thousands have probably been subjected – and the apathy towards, and often enthusiasm for, such malpractice among the public.
  • (16) The consequences for Syria have been multiple massacres, ethnic cleansing, torture, a humanitarian crisis and the risk of the country's breakup.
  • (17) While ruling that there had been improper use of Schedule 7 powers, the judge commented: "It was clear that the Security Service, for entirely understandable reasons, was anxious if possible to get information which could not be regarded as tainted by torture allegations or which might confirm the propriety of a control order."
  • (18) All the personality, dignity and humanity of a person are devastated by this torture.
  • (19) You had to let it crash over you.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Miles’s life was torture’ … Lu Spinney at home.
  • (20) Davis said he would be surprised if an incoming Conservative government did not set up an immediate inquiry into this case and others where Britain is alleged to have been involved in the secret rendering by the US of detainees to prison where they were likely to be tortured.