tormentor

noun

1. One who torments; a person, animal, or object that causes suffering.

   “Before that estimable lady could recover herself, or offer the slightest retaliation, she was forced into a kneeling posture by a crowd of shouting tormentors, and compelled to swallow a spoonful of the odious mixture […]”

   “A girl of the village […] came and rang at my bell as soon as it was light […] perfectly maddened with an aching tooth. […] The poor thing begged me with tears in her eyes to take out her tormentor, if I dragged her head off.”

   “The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland.”

2. (archaic)One who torments; a person, animal, or object that causes suffering.

   “And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.”

   “All the racks and dungeons of Rome, with their tormentors, could not terrify him.”

   “1933, Hervey Allen, Anthony Adverse, New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 6, p. 78, Her eyes rested on him for an instant like those of an accused person seeing the state tormentor approach for the first time.”

3. (figuratively)Something abstract that causes suffering.

   “These words hereafter thy tormentors be!”

   “Thoughts my Tormenters arm’d with deadly stings Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,”

   “1759, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Part 1, Section 1, p. 10, The infant […] feels only the uneasiness of the present instant, which can never be great. With regard to the future it is perfectly secure, and in its thoughtlessness and want of foresight possesses an antidote against fear and anxiety, the great tormentors of the human breast, from which reason and philosophy will in vain attempt to defend it when it grows up to a man.”

   “As he spoke about his loss, it became clear why he had waited at the station platform every day to meet their train: he was matching his wits with time the great tormentor.”

4. One of a pair of narrow curtains just behind the front curtain and teaser that mask the areas on the sides of the stage and can be adjusted to the desired width.

   “Then Nathan Eldred, gently pushing, was muttering, ‘On you go, dear. Good luck!’ and she was edging between the tormentor and the backing flats, in front of the curtain, holding her small hands out to the sudden-silenced audience […]”

5. An implement for reducing a stiff soil, resembling a harrow, but running upon wheels.
6. (obsolete)A long meat-fork.

   “1813, Charles Stewart, enclosure in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated 18 October, 1813, in William S. Dudley (editor), The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Washington D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 1992, Volume 2, p. 392, Cabin furniture received onboard the U.S.F. Constellation at Washington […] 1 Cleaver and tormentors/Cook; [footnote:] A tormentor is a long iron meat fork used by sea cooks.”