What's the difference between pursue and torment?

Pursue


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To follow with a view to overtake; to follow eagerly, or with haste; to chase; as, to pursue a hare.
  • (v. t.) To seek; to use or adopt measures to obtain; as, to pursue a remedy at law.
  • (v. t.) To proceed along, with a view to some and or object; to follow; to go in; as, Captain Cook pursued a new route; the administration pursued a wise course.
  • (v. t.) To prosecute; to be engaged in; to continue.
  • (v. t.) To follow as an example; to imitate.
  • (v. t.) To follow with enmity; to persecute; to call to account.
  • (v. i.) To go in pursuit; to follow.
  • (v. i.) To go on; to proceed, especially in argument or discourse; to continue.
  • (v. i.) To follow a matter judicially, as a complaining party; to act as a prosecutor.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The idea that 80% of an engineer's time is spent on the day job and 20% pursuing a personal project is a mathematician's solution to innovation, Brin says.
  • (2) We are pursuing legal action because there are still so many unanswered questions about the viability of Shenhua’s proposed koala plan and it seems at this point the plan does not guarantee the survival of the estimated 262 koalas currently living where Shenhua wants to put its mine,” said Ranclaud.
  • (3) We have now started a prospective follow-up study in order to pursue the development of (a) p-ERG amplitudes and (b) funduscopic changes and visual acuity in these patients.
  • (4) Principal conclusions are: 1) rapid change to predominantly heterosexual HIV transmission can occur in North America, with serious societal impact; 2) gender-specific clinical features can lead to earlier diagnosis of HIV infection in women; 3) HIV infection in women does not pursue an inherently more rapid course than that observed in men.
  • (5) These results suggest that ED2+ macrophages, TRPM-3+ macrophages, and Ia+ dendritic cells are distinct cell lines that pursue independent developmental process in spleen ontogeny.
  • (6) In conclusion, 1) etiology of urinary tract stone in all recurrent stone formers and in all patients with multiple stones must be pursued, and 2) all stones either removed or passed must be subjected to infrared spectrometry.
  • (7) And that is why we have taken bold action at home – by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.
  • (8) He said he will pursue new measures, including demolishing the homes of instigators.
  • (9) Pfizer kept up its efforts to get AstraZeneca to the negotiating table over its £63bn approach as it reported revenue well below Wall Street expectations, underscoring its interest in pursuing its UK rival to promote new business growth.
  • (10) Bostock, who is long thought to have had a tense relationship with chief executive Marc Bolland , is departing by "mutual consent to pursue other interests" on 1 October, when she will also leave the M&S board.
  • (11) We are effectively in funding limbo Professor Barney Glover, Universities Australia chair Glover was also set to emphasise the need for affordability because “cost must not deter any capable student from pursuing a university education”.
  • (12) Many cases before the commissioner remain unresolved, although those who wish to pursue matters to the tribunal as part of the transitional arrangements will not have to pay an additional fee to appeal to the tribunal.
  • (13) "And if you're pursuing music as the equivalent of your nine-to-five, and you'd quite like to be doing that for years to come, it's in your interest not to rock the boat."
  • (14) Residents of Cardiff , Cumbria and Plymouth are either dallying with the idea or actively pursuing it.
  • (15) According to his blog, he's been acting on the advice of a friend and pursuing a course of "silence, exile and cunning", but I'm not sure a couple of years of not giving interviews to Heat qualifies.
  • (16) However, further studies involving more patients are required to pursue this hypothesis.
  • (17) That is the strategy I’m pursuing in Nehalem, Oregon , where I recently ran for mayor.
  • (18) Other findings showed highly satisfactory to above average performance of graduates whether based on residency supervisors' evaluations or self-evaluations and higher ratings for the graduates who selected surgery residency programs than for those pursuing other disciplines.
  • (19) A hypothetical scheme is presented that pursues the processes involved in invasion from the biochemical events generated by attachment of the parasite, to the steric rearrangement of red cell membrane proteins, which culminates in invasion.
  • (20) While Claude Moraes MEP's committee on surveillance is admirably pursuing this agenda, member states remain unresponsive.

Torment


Definition:

  • (n.) An engine for casting stones.
  • (n.) Extreme pain; anguish; torture; the utmost degree of misery, either of body or mind.
  • (n.) That which gives pain, vexation, or misery.
  • (v. t.) To put to extreme pain or anguish; to inflict excruciating misery upon, either of body or mind; to torture.
  • (v. t.) To pain; to distress; to afflict.
  • (v. t.) To tease; to vex; to harass; as, to be tormented with importunities, or with petty annoyances.
  • (v. t.) To put into great agitation.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (2) "It is difficult to imagine the torment experienced by the vulnerable victims of crimes such as these.
  • (3) While his citizens were being beaten and tormented in illegal detention, spokesmen for the then prime minister, Tony Blair, declared: "The Italian police had a difficult job to do.
  • (4) Yet the removal of two in-form goalscorers who were tormenting West Ham – first Aaron Lennon and then Lukaku – afforded the visitors the initiative.
  • (5) Through small and large acts of deprivation and destruction we follow the process: the removal of hope, of dignity, of luxury, of necessity, of self; the reduction of a man to a hoarder of grey slabs of bread and the scrapings of a soup bowl (wonderfully told all this, with a novelist's gift for detail and sometimes very nearly comic surprise), to the confinement of a narrow bed – in which there is "not even any room to be afraid" – with a stranger who doesn't speak your language, to the cruel illogicality of hating a fellow victim of oppression more than you hate the oppressor himself – one torment following another, and even the bleak comfort of thinking you might have touched rock bottom denied you as, when the most immediate cause of a particular stress comes to an end, "you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others".
  • (6) Corner to USA though... 1.33am BST 20 mins More tempo in the American play now, but Belgium intercept again, and Mirallas torments them down the Belgian right flank before hitting a low cross in that's hoofed safely clear.
  • (7) It cannot be right that anyone who has found the courage to escape their abusive or violent partner should be subjected to the stress and torment of being confronted and interrogated by them in any court.” Research by charity Women’s Aid suggests a quarter of women in family court proceedings have been cross-examined by an abusive former partner.
  • (8) Shin Dong-hyuk said he was tormented to see his father alive and speaking in the video released by Pyongyang in October.
  • (9) In a torment of frustration, Mohammed stood outside the governor's and threw a can of petrol over himself.
  • (10) More than a quarter of hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia (no surprise to anyone who has been in hospital recently, where wards are full of men and women in great anxiety and torment) and they tend to stay for longer-than-average periods of time.
  • (11) Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island whose bipartisan bill will ensure a three-month extension of the federal benefits program, told the Guardian the measure would stimulate the economy and alleviate what he called the “mental torment” suffered by those long-term unemployed who now feel abandoned.
  • (12) It was only his inflexible determination, the quality that had made him a great general, that mastered the torments of ill-health – sleepless nights, fear of dying – to articulate his account for a devoted American audience.
  • (13) The man who devised these torments has a passing resemblance to El Greco's emaciated saints.
  • (14) Arsenal had no riposte to the blue and white striped waves that tormented them all evening.
  • (15) Father Michael, so brilliantly played by Sean Bean , was tormented by one such moment: his decision not to answer the phone to Helen Oyenusi (Muna Otaru) when she called to ask that he calm down her son.
  • (16) Suárez played as through affronted by the suggestion he might have fitness issues, tormenting England’s defence on a night that finished as a personal ordeal for Steven Gerrard.
  • (17) So often did John torment his elder brother – because, grouchy alcoholic prick that he was, he hated to acknowledge a debt – one has to wonder if he cast Francis in a minor part in Young Mr Lincoln simply to let him witness, day after day, his own signature role being forever obliterated by Henry Fonda's entrancing new reading.
  • (18) Shawcross, however, maintains there was no bad intent and said for that reason he has not been tormenting himself about the moment he collided with Ramsey's right leg and left the teenager writhing in agony.
  • (19) Since his withdrawal from the music scene, Shields has earned a reputation as the latter-day Brian Wilson, a tormented genius unable to produce a successor to Loveless, the Pet Sounds of UK avant-rock.
  • (20) Adding to the torment for Rodgers was a 120-minute performance before hosting Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday at noon.